Old tale, new actors ADOPTION FIC
by maneyan
Summary: Going asleep in your own world and waking up living once again the legends you created as a child is a strange tale indeed. Sokka does not know how it happened but here he is once more, and so are the others. Yet not all things are the same and what that implies is sinister indeed. [ADOPTION FIC, UP HERE TO INSPIRE, WILL NOT BE FINISHED]


AN: This fic is a side project of mine that will NOT, I repeat NOT, be finished by me. It is abandoned, cast aside, left for the wolves to chew on. It is however up for adoption as it were. Let it inspire you, let it give you ideas and so on. I will never be able to finish it but I want nevertheless everyone else to get a chance to make something out of it. Enjoy what you see my friends, and use what you can from it.

* * *

Sokka took off his wolf helmet, put his sword down on the ground, and leaned back into the soft grass with a sigh to look up at the sky above him with a weary gaze. The clouds above danced forth across the sky just as gaily as usual it seemed. He sure could use some of that, so he idly reached up trying to grab the clouds. Yet, when he pulled down his hand and looked at the palm there was nothing there. Meh...

Idly scratching his small goatee, he pondered just how his life had turned out. Picking up his helmet, he looked into the reflective surface to see the somewhat warped image of himself in it. A weary, worn face with more edges than anything else and with tired eyes. Why did his sister look like she was twenty-five still while he looked more like thirty-five? Holy moly did he ever age poorly. Also he needed to remember that rhyme.

He sat there, pondering his life as he looked up at the sky. Not melancholically mind you, just a bit pensive. At thirty years of age he had already experienced enough for quite a few lifetimes and it wasn't that hard to now and then feel a bit tired. The weight of your experiences mounted the longer one lived and though he was far indeed from becoming weary he still felt like he could understand why old masters like his sifu Piandao chose to retire from the world and live lives of solitude and contemplation.

Still, the Southern Wolf was far from becoming old yet. He had only just turned 30 after all, there still were a lot of years ahead for him. Smiling somewhat to himself, he closed his eyes and decided that he'd keep moving after a short nap. The sky really was inviting; he felt he could rest in its embrace just a little. Yes... a short rest would be just the thing right now. He smiled idly to himself and drifted off into the land of unconsciousness

* * *

"Sokka!" the voice cut through his sleepiness and Sokka was startled back to wakefulness. Looking up, he blinked a couple of times and shook his to shake off his sleepiness. Looking around with wide eyes in an attempt to play it off, he found himself gawking at what he saw. He was no longer on a hill in Earth Country. He was back home on the South Pole, sitting in the large warriors' lodge with several other warriors around him. Only... To his left sat his father, looking twenty years younger than he remembered the man. Bato was on his other side, looking younger as well, and as Sokka swept his gaze over the rest of the warriors he realized that he could recognize them all, only that they were either twenty years too young or... well, alive. Warriors he knew had turned into wizened old men or who had died long ago sat all in an elliptic circle around a large leather map over the four nations.

Okay he had to be dreaming.

"Please," his father said with a weary sigh that was so much Katara that Sokka instinctively flinched, "can't you try to stay awake for at least this meeting?"

"Ah, well," Sokka begun, "sorry dad." for some reason his father got a twitch in his left eye, Bato gave up a bark of laughter however, as did several other warriors

"He got you there Hakoda," the man grinned, "You really did sound like your dad there." Sokka felt even more confused now, blinking a few times before he instinctively reached up to touch his face. Sure enough, it felt familiar and all, but didn't that mean... okay now what? He was twenty years back in time? With the same face?! What was going on?!

"Bato!" Hakoda snapped now before turning to Sokka, "brother. This is serious business! What we decide on today will determine the course of our entire tribe, perhaps even the world! Can you please focus?"

Brother? Sokka literally found his mind stand still in confusion. His father had just called him... brother? What was this? Wait, wait, this was twenty years ago, he still looked the same... of course. This was some weird dream. He was dreaming that he was an adult back when the men of the southern water tribes had gathered and made their plans for their campaign during the hundred year war. Okay, that made sense, that he could work with... only just how dodgy had that seafood he ate at the inn that morning been? Clearing his throat, he nodded towards his father-turned-brother.

"Sorry," he said and while he still felt a sense of vertigo about the weirdness of it all he still could focus. After all, dreams were weird. "Where were we?" Hakoda looked at him with an irritated gaze that once again was scarily much like the one Katara would have given him.

"...As we move north from here," he continued after a while, pointing at the map in front of them, "we'll risk running into Fire Nation ships. We'll avoid serious engagements if possible, the main goal is to reach the northern tribes with as many warriors as possible." Sokka did his best to follow, eager to see the planning of the campaign that had come to shape his young life like it did due to his father's departure.

"Which ports will we use for resupply?" he asked instinctively upon watching the strategy map in front of them. Hakoda and the others looked at him for a moment and Sokka wondered suddenly if he had done something wrong. He shouldn't have; that was important to think about. Never the less, Hakoda was still "dad" to him. For a second the silence was almost complete and all of a sudden Sokka wanted to crawl into a small ball and whimper "sorrysorrysorry!". Nobody called Sokka on anything though and Hakoda looked back to the map.

"These," he said, pointing out several smaller ports along the Earth Nation coast. Sokka let out a sigh of relief, feeling like he had been about to piss himself. Also, the ports were places Sokka remembered as being still free during this part of the hundred year war. Except for one of them...

"We shouldn't go for Shu Gon," he said and used a stick to point at one of the villages along the coast, "that village is going to be taken by the Fire Nation, if not now then later."

"What makes you say that?" Hakoda asked.

"Look," he said, pointing at it where it lay at the large island forming a "cork" at the mouth of a large river, "it's got a deep harbor, perfect for fire nation battleships to dock and supply at. The fire nation has no other deep harbors along this coast. Shu Gon is small but it's a prize the Fire Nation will want. Resupplying there will be risky."

"And it's got nothing to do with that time you seduced Shu Gon's mayor's daughter?" Hakoda asked dryly and Sokka shrugged, internally wondering just where that came from. He couldn't remember anything like that. Thinking furiously about it, he tried to remember if the girl in question had at least been hot. She should have been if it was him but then again he knew nothing of this dream's Sokka's tastes. He could have been into really weird stuff. Like tentacles or something. Only way he knew that would work would involve a squid and poor gag reflexes. Ick.

"What would you suggest?" Bato asked curiously and Sokka grinned.

"We'll resupply in Go Ma," he said, pointing at the village further up the river. "using the cover of darkness, we can slip up the stream, resupply and leave along the upper stream. We won't get within eyesight of Shu Gon and still be resupplied. Won't even be that much of a detour. Our ships can move even in shallow waters so they can reach Go Ma without problem."

"And leave us trapped if the Fire nation decides to blockade the exits," Hakoda answered.

"It's risky," Sokka admitted, "but no more so than sailing straight into Shu Gon and the maw of the beast. We can hide the ships on land during day and move during the night. We slip in, hide in the swamp delta during the day and then we slip out during the next night."

"Hmm..." Hakoda said thoughtfully and Bato nodded slowly. Sokka looked around to see the other warriors showing thoughtful but mainly approving looks as well. "Some hidden bombs by the southern mouth could draw attention away from us as we slip out."

"Good thinking," Sokka said. It was a bit more brutal than he would have preferred it but still, it would increase their chances to slip away. The southern and northern mouths of the river were several miles apart. Close enough for the explosions to be visible but no more. Also, this was an awesome dream! He was here, at the meeting that in his mind was a thing of legend, and he was actually performing! Remembering his miserable attempt at public speaking before the failed invasion of the Fire Nation on the day of the black sun, he grinned somewhat to himself in realization that he had gotten far away from that.

"When we join up with the northern tribes we'll have the aid of water-benders finally," Bato said and Hakoda nodded, smiling somewhat.

"It'll be good to see Katara and the others again," he said, leaving Sokka with a furrowed brow. Katara was there? Why precisely?

"How long has it been now?" he begun, deciding to play it subtle.

"Five years," Hakoda said, "five years since she and the others left for the north."

"Damn the raiders," Bato muttered, "if Katara hadn't led the others north, would we have any waterbenders left now?"

"I don't think so," Sokka said, feeling a small sense sense of triumph at his awesome stealthiness. So that was it here? Katara had taken the waterbenders north instead of having them taken one by one by the southern raiders. His sister was awesome. Still though, wouldn't she have been like 7 at that point? Or was she aged up as well? He decided to leave that and instead focus on having an awesome dream. "They'd all be rotting in a Fire Nation prison or something." For a while a feeling of sadness sunk over the gathered warriors and no one said anything. It was, in the end, Hakoda, who spoke up again.

"Here it ends though," he said as he stood up, "in one week we move out, to the north and to war!"

"War!" all the gathered warriors cried. Sokka's heart begun to race now. This tradition hadn't been followed since the end of the hundred year war but he remembered it.

"By the spirits!" Bato added as he rose, "For too long we've lived in fear. Now we trade it for wrath!"

"Wrath!" everyone cried and Sokka, caught up in the moment, stood up and raised the sword by his side.

"By sword and spear, by fang and claw!" he roared, "let's make them rue the day they angered the wolves of the south pole!"

"Aroooo!" everyone cried, howling as they called for the ancestral spirits to give them strength. Sokka held his fist high and all others followed suit. Howling with them, Sokka felt the wild joy of being here. Here, in a pure water tribe moment, a ritual that had faded in the new times that came after the war's end. It was primitive, bloodthirsty and grim but Sokka nevertheless felt so at home right now. No more confusing mixing of the Four Nations' traditions, no new model societies and no united republic, just pure Water Tribe tradition of the most primal kind.

The meeting was soon ended and Sokka exited the lodge out into the night with a boiling feeling of battle lust in him. Though the night was dark his soul burned right now. He felt like he feared nothing! Like he could throw himself at half the Fire Nation's military without fear! He'd cut a swathe through them all and claim victory over them all! It was at that moment that he realized he was still breathing deeply.

Sokka quickly walked over to a nearby snow pile into which he shoved his head to cool it off. Yeah so it was not a literal saying, so what? This did the job and the shock of cold brought him out of the delirious feel of bloodthirst. First a minute later he pulled out his head and gasped. His head was cold enough that it felt like it would explode but it had worked. He was out of that stupid mindset where bravado would feel like it was all that mattered. Sokka had led enough wars to know that battles were dependent on equipment, logistics and strategy, boring things like that.

"You never stop being weird you know," Hakoda said behind him and Sokka looked back to see his father... no wait brother it was right now. He was leaning against the wall close by and stood with a smile on his lips.

"We all have our gifts," he grinned in response. It was interesting to see how there was so much of Katara in his father. Sokka had always thought of himself as their father's son and Katara as their mother's daughter. It didn't seem quite that simple though. Hakoda chuckled somewhat and Sokka felt a sense of happiness at the sound.

"Thank you for being here," Hakoda said all of a sudden, "I know how much you loved traveling the world. That you're here now means the world to me." Sokka didn't quite know what to say now. For a dream this was very thorough. Shouldn't he know what to answer in a situation like this?

"You're welcome," he said after a second, smiling wryly. Hakoda shook his head.

"I mean it," he said, "thank you Sokka. There's not one person here who didn't become overjoyed when you came home again." Aaaawkwaaard. What kinda person was he meant to be here precisely? This dream was getting complicated. Already it was hard to accept that his father was apparently his brother. This kind of naked gratitude was a bit jarring to have from his invincible father.

"You're slipping, chieftain," he grinned eventually in an attempt to play it off and Hakoda sighed. Still his "brother" smiled somewhat.

"Good night," he said, turning around. "there's going to be a lot of work to get ready for the expedition. Don't let me catch you in some woman's bed tomorrow," he added with a wry smile before walking away and leaving Sokka to look after him. Sokka pursed his lips and wondered where this dream was going. Usually by now this was where he'd either find out he wore no pants or where he'd start to fly or something. Pretty consistent dream thematically. Starting to walk around the silent village, he looked around at the igloos and tents pondering what he had discovered.

It seemed he was dreaming of a life where he was an itinerant warrior of some sort, a wanderer and a ladies' man. The fact that he had returned home was evidently a cause for celebration amongst his tribe. Still, spinning around his sword, he realized that apparently he had still learned to wield a sword and with a quick twist, he pulled out a foot of the steel buried inside the sheath. The dull, dark reflection of the torchlight in the blade told him that it still was the Space Sword. Drawing the sword and making a few swings, he felt everything being precisely as it should in terms of balance and weight.

So... a wandering warrior and ladies' man who seduced and fought his way around the Four Nations? Once he would have found the idea awesome, now he had only just enough sense to shake his head at it. Meh... Sokka found himself wandering a bit more, pondering the feeling of knowing he had seemingly no ties to anything beyond his impulses and his family. After about twenty minutes he stood atop the low ice wall around the village and looked up at the stars.

No, he eventually decided. That really wasn't for him. He belonged in the thick of it, where he could do some good not just by waving a sharp metal piece at people (with due apologies to sifu Piandao and the Space Sword both) but through negotiating and leading as well. He actually didn't mind being a politician that much; at least not when he went about it honorably.

Yeah... he supposed that was how it was in the end. With that, he leaned forwards and looked down. Roughly a five meter drop as far as he could tell. Aang had once told him that falling inside a dream was a sure-fire way to wake up so Sokka leaped up on the battlement. This was as good a place as any to end the dream. It would be a fun little story for Aang and the others if nothing else. How different things could have been Sokka thought to himself as he closed his eyes and fell backwards, down the wall. Here the dream ended.

Or so he thought. Sokka didn't wake up on the grassy knoll where he had fallen asleep. Instead he was introduced back-first to the tightly packed snow below the wall. The air was knocked out of him and he grunted in pain as his head begun to spin. Reaching up to clutch the back of his head, Sokka gasped for the air that refused to come and curled up almost on instinct. Damn that hurt!

Lying on the ground there for a while, Sokka clutched the back of his head and felt, through the pain and the vertigo, how the air slowly came back to him and he gasped deeply. What in the blazes had happened?! He blinked and through teary eyes he looked around to see himself lying on the ground outside the wall of his home village, the night as dark as ever and the snow just as cold. It was there that the sudden sensation of fear came over him.

Why hadn't he woken up? He had felt it clearly, the sensation of falling... How could he still be dreaming? Slowly sitting up, Sokka massaged his aching neck and gritted his teeth. Could Aang have been wrong? If so that would be a first when dreams were concerned. His friend was a master when it came to the world of dreams. Or wait, it could just be a fluke. Exceptions proved the rule after all; he'd just have to try some other ways. A quick pinch to the cheek however failed to provide however and Sokka paused for a moment.

Wait a second... Sokka groaned upon realizing that he had literally just pinched himself to feel some pain when his entire body already hurt! Facepalming, he groaned and hoped that nobody had seen it. After a while he slowly got to his feet. Damn he would be sore tomorrow. Hope no one had seen that.

Still, what in the blazes was going on? Sokka looked around at the world around him. If this was a dream... why did things feel so thorough? Usually in dreams you kind of floated around, Sokka felt himself stand with two feet planted firmly in the snow. His body hurt and he was still somewhat wet from his dip into the snow. Pain, falling, water... damn it he was all out of ideas on how to get out of here. So what did that mean?

Was this reality? Sokka blinked as the implications hit him. Oh holy shit... raising his hand to his mouth, he leaned back against the wall with wide eyes. Was he really back in time?!

No, no, wait. This had to be some kind of delusion, some kind of hypnosis. Good logic demanded that you considered the simplest explanations first. Did he know any people who used hypnosis or similar things? No not really... but then again... Groaning, he begun to walk around the wall and towards the entrance. As far as he could think of there were no groups of hostile benders or anything similar who possessed that ability. What would it even be called? Mindbending? He shuddered at the implications but decided to hold off speculating for now. If someone had trapped him in a delusion it was a wholly new enemy, one never encountered before. He knew Aang could take away someone's bending abilities but to trap someone in a dream like this? No, that was a new one. It didn't sound too believable really.

But still... time travel? And into a world where he was his father's brother? That was even more absurd. Damn it all... what was he going to do? Also... where the heck did he live in the village now? The cold was really starting to get to him, especially where his head was concerned. If he was a wanderer... did he live at his... well "brother's" place? His head was starting to spin, both from the blow and the possibilities, so eventually he hobbled to the most familiar of the tents and crawled inside. Collapsing onto the nearest bear pelt, he groaned silently and closed his eyes. He'd have to sleep, there was nothing more to do and he wasn't going anywhere as it was. Still if-when he got out of this delusion he was going to have a fun time introducing his boomerang to a few new skulls.

Damn it his head hurt!

If Sokka got any sleep that night he couldn't tell. His head refused to stop pounding and it felt like he drifted in and out of consciousness. He was plagued by strange visions as well, disjointed flashes of what seemed like memories but if they were that they were of a life he hadn't lived. Familiar faces flashed by in unfamiliar settings.

A standoff with sifu Piandao on a ship with the man wearing a fire nation army outfit and having a grim look on his face...

A soft divan in Ba Sing Sei with girls all around him...

A dash through a dark city he couldn't place with hooded figures chasing him to retrieve the scroll he held...

Playing Pai Sho with King Bumi of Omashu while at the same time care-freely biting pieces of the Jennamite crystal covering his hand...

Sokka couldn't tell in the end where he ended and the strange visions begun. If flitted back and forth, seemingly pushing itself into his mind and leaving him to wake up with a murderous headache and a body so sore he barely could move.

* * *

"You're unbelievable," Hakoda said as he sat cross-legged by Sokka's bedside and watched him be treated by Gran-gran... or "mother" as she evidently was to him now. "You sit on the war council as tall and as wily as any we could ask for and ten minutes later you trip and fall down the wall of all things."

"We all have our talents..." Sokka groaned through closed eyes from his position on the bear skin. Gran-gran... meh screw it, Kanna, was mixing some of her herbal medicine right next to him. The smell of molten whale fat came from the fire where a pot filled with it was boiling. Apparently this would be one of those medicines you breathed in if Sokka remembered it properly. Some felt that medicine was icky but Sokka felt that waking up and realizing you've been sucking a frozen frog a whole night was way ickier. He still hadn't gotten back at Aang for that one he realized.

"Yours appear to be worrying your mother sick," Kanna said with a sigh as she stirred the pot, "could you get some more firewood Hakoda dear?"

"Bato!" Hakoda said and Bato soon looked in through the opening.

"How is he?" the man asked.

"Can you get some more firewood?" Hakoda asked yet Kanna cut him off.

"I said you were going to get it," she told him. "Now, please." There was something sharp in her voice. Hakoda looked at his... their, mother for a moment before sighing and getting up.

"I will be back soon," he said and left, Sokka hearing something resigned, almost irritated, in his voice. No sooner had he exited the tent however that Kanna spoke up again. This time she addressed Sokka.

"Why did you jump?" she asked, her voice quiet and sad.

"Huh?" Sokka asked.

"I know you Sokka," Kanna said, "you are as sure-footed as a polar leopard. You'd never slip like that."

"Yes, last night wasn't something I plan on repeating," Sokka said. "don't worry about that."

"So why?" Kanna asked with a steely voice. "What were you trying to accomplish?" There it was, that tone of "Gran-gran" that tolerated nothing but a clear answer. Sokka might be 30 years old but he still couldn't refuse that tone.

"I was wondering whether or not I was dreaming," he told her, "I'm here, at a place I never thought I'd ever be... it's too weird, I shouldn't be here, I should be way to the north... I don't know what's going on. I had to check." Kanna stopped stirring now and for a moment she was silent.

"Sokka..." she said after a while, sounding almost despondent. "for all our conflicts... I still love you. Is being back with your family truly so strange that you have to attempt to take your own life to tell if it's real?"

"I..." Sokka began. Delusion or not, it hurt to hear Gran-gran so sad. He had missed the woman ever since she died several years ago and to now have her back only to hurt her made him sick. "I don't know..." he eventually said. Whatever this was, family was family to Sokka. "I just needed... I needed to see if I could wake up." Taking a breath, Sokka looked up at the ceiling above him through bleary eyes. He didn't feel like he had a concussion but it wouldn't have surprised him if he had. For a few seconds things were silent and Sokka just lay there. He seemed stuck here, in whatever delusion that had him trapped. Damn it all...

A hand came to wrap itself around his and Sokka looked down, seeing Kanna... his mother here, holding it with a sad look on her face. Sokka pondered just what he was going to tell her.

"It is strange," he said eventually, "but... not in a bad way." In the end he did suppose that was true. To see Gran-gran, Kanna, again made him happy. He clasped his hand around hers and smiled weakly towards her.

"You have no idea how happy you make me by saying that." Kanna said and Sokka silently met her eyes. "welcome home Sokka," she said, sounding so gentle and so loving that Sokka didn't find words to respond. He had missed her, ever since she died he had missed the sagely old woman.

The moment was interrupted as Hakoda came inside again, this time carrying a large armful of firewood which he started to feed to the fire. Kanna let go of him and begun to work on the medicine again. Sokka, meanwhile, went back to ponder the situation he was in. Being a non-bender, he stood completely helpless in a situation like this. He didn't know of any way to get out of here, wherever this was.

A thought then struck him. What if it was no delusion? What if it really was real? What if, through some trick of the spirits, he had been cast into this realm? The memory of a winter solstice in his youth came to him. He had been spirited away and returned first hours later... what if this was the same thing, only much more powerful? The implications were terrifying if that was the case. What would even have that kind of power? The sudden smell of burned herbs came over him and Sokka found himself being hit by almost a wave of dizziness as the medicine begun to do its job.

This wasn't over yet he thought to himself and closed his eyes again with the intent of focusing on breathing for now. The more medicine he got into himself the better. Yes he knew that was not how medicine worked but he left the dosage question with his grand... with his mother.

All this was really strange Sokka thought as he felt sleepiness get over him. He'd just need to sit tight for a while though. If nothing else someone would come for him. Aang was a spirit bender and with someone like Sokka having vanished the Avatar would tear down heaven and earth to find him. Otherwise... Sokka wondered just how things would have played out in the world had this been the situation. No Katara to break Aang out of his icy prison would mean he'd remain in there most probably. Sokka remained on his bed pondering the many possibilities. He tried to make a mental flow-chart over what could happen here but realized already somewhere halfway to the north pole that it'd be impossible. Plans would have to be put off, be it plans to escape this delusion or stand and fight in the world he was in at the moment. Spirits he hoped the latter option wasn't really the true one... if so it meant he was lost to his world and even if he could return, would the Sokka of this world return to here?

With his head still buzzing with thoughts, Sokka went to sleep with the aid of Kanna's medicine.

* * *

Five days had passed, five days of heavy work and constant packing and preparation. The sixth day was dawning and it found Sokka sitting on the battlements of the ice wall around their village. He sat cross-legged and with his eyes closed. For three hours he had meditated in silence, pondering what lay ahead.

There seemed to be few other ways to view the situation he was in other than the most extraordinary possibility. He was indeed back in time, cast into some strange alternative universe where his age remained the same. Yet, there were what he could only describe as provisions made to accommodate for the age change. Whatever was going on however, it seemed to be real. His... brother, was indeed leaving for the north pole along with all the other warriors. That he was leaving about a year after he had left back in the old timeline was strange, true, but other than that everything seemed to check out. Sokka opened his eyes to look at the sun that was rising from the horizon far away. It seemed obvious at a first glance what to do. He should go along with Hakoda and the others and show the Fire Nation a thing or two.

So why did he hesitate? There was something going on here. There had to be some kind of reason as to why this had happened. Destiny was a strange thing but Sokka had seen enough to find himself believing in it. If not as a straight line one was meant to take then at least an underlying pattern of things meant to happen. Yet what weird pattern was being made here? It'd be as convoluted as one of his attempts at sewing, that was for sure. "Wait and see" was all he could think of, problem was that he hated doing that.

A sudden flash of light hit his eyes now however, making him startle. Blinking, he recoiled somewhat before noticing where it came from. Someone was reflecting light into his eyes from the mountain further ahead. What more, the flashes came at regular intervals. Once a second they came, four flashes in a row with a second's pause between each before pausing for a four seconds and then continuing. The pattern made Sokka's heart race. He knew that pattern! It was the Team Avatar signal, the pattern he had come up with years ago! Sokka didn't hesitate but instead grabbed his sword and leaped off the wall. Landing as sure-footed as a polar leopard, he begun to quickly move towards the mountains.

Almost running at the end, he leaped up the beginning of the slope and dashed up the snow-covered slope. Whomever it was he or she had signaled from somewhere here. His head turned left and right as he looked with eager gaze to see which of his friends had contacted him. It took him a minute to spot the tracks in the snow and following them, he rounded the large chunk of ice that hid the one who had signaled him.

It turned out to be Zuko. The man Sokka knew as the Fire Lord sat leaning against the ice block with a soldier's armour on his body and a sword in his hand. He looked just like Sokka remembered him bar a few things. First and foremost the usually immaculate man was not just dirty but outright ragged-looking. His long hair was in a mess and not even the topknot he wore was intact. His appearance was haggard and his gaze haunted as he looked up at Sokka.

"Spirits Zuko," Sokka said, "You look like shit." The joy of seeing his friend was tempered by the man's appearance.

"Where are we?" Zuko said bluntly with a hoarse voice. "What is this place we've been cast into? Is this hell?" Sokka blinked and felt a stab of coldness in his guts. What had Zuko arrived to find in this world he instantly wondered. It couldn't have been good, not if it made him look like this.

"Are you okay?" he asked. It was somewhat redundant to ask he realized the instant he had said it. "Never mind, what's happened?" he said as he kneeled by his side.

"The last thing I remembered was going to sleep in my chambers back home..." Zuko said hoarsely, "then all of a sudden I am back here during the war, standing over uncle's dying body!" the fire lord covered his eyes with his hands and begun to breathe deeply. Sokka went ice cold at this, knowing well how much the old firebender meant to Zuko.

"Oh spirits," he said, "what had happened?"

"I happened!" Zuko said unsteadily, "my swords were buried in his guts, I had stabbed him in the liver, aimed to make him suffer! I killed him, like a madman would have done it!" He clenched his hands in his hair now, Sokka seeing clearly that this was bad. Very bad in fact. Zuko's journey into this world made his look like a 13 numbers right win at the lottery. He realized Zuko must have fled in desperation.

"Zuko!" he exclaimed now, kneeling by the man's side. "you did not kill him!" he exclaimed, grabbing the man's shoulders. "I don't know where we are right now but this world had other versions of us! I apparently was some kind of wandering swordsman and the fact that I'm back here now has made my entire family do a double-check. That's not me and you know it. It's the same thing here Zuko! You did not kill Iroh! You know that you wouldn't be able to do that ever!"

"I saw him die damn it!" Zuko cried out with a choked voice, "he stared into my eyes," the man continued tearfully, "just... just looked at me as his life ran away. And all he said... all he said was "well done, brother." before he died." The story he told made Sokka horrified. He could only imagine how that must feel. It'd be like him awakening over Katara's corpse, something that could have snapped his mind in half. The Zuko he saw right now seemed about to do just that. How the hell had he stayed intact even this long?

"That was the other version of you!" Sokka exclaimed hurriedly. The thought flashed by in his head that he hardly was an expert on this but he shoved it away. Zuko needed comfort right now and a lot of it. He swore under his breath before he continued, "Zuko, look at me!" he said as he grabbed the man's wrists before Zuko did something stupid. The gaze that met his was utterly despondent. It screamed out a pain that made Sokka almost reel. "Zuko..." he begun. "That was not you. It cannot have been you. Whatever you were in this world it doesn't change what you are. And Iroh, may his ancestors keep him, smiled didn't he? Don't discount him that easily! There might be a reason for it."

"I know that reason!" Zuko snarled, "he failed at Ba Sing Sei and Ozai, my brother here, sent me to kill him! The Mad Dragon of the West is what they call me here! He sent me to deal with the "failure"!"

"Zuko!" Sokka began again, "Iroh must have known it'd happen! Why would he otherwise have smiled?! Did, did he do anything else? Give you anything?" Zuko just stared at him for a few seconds, the man's pain-filled eyes locked in place for a few seconds as he tried to think. Eventually he nodded.

"His White Lotus tile," Zuko said, "he... oh ancestors, he gave it to me with a smile!" Sokka stood like an idiot now. What did you do at times like this? It was his sister that was the healer. He was just the guy with a boomerang and a sword. He therefore said nothing even though he knew he probably should. What could one say in a situation like this? In the end it was Zuko who spoke up again. "I don't know why I came here... I just... I had to get away. I came to think of this place, came hoping to, I don't know find Aang or something..."

"I don't know where Aang is," Sokka said, "I know Katara is in the north though. Perhaps Toph is in the earth country somewhere."

"Why?" Zuko asked, "why is this happening? What kind of sick spirit brought us here to this?"

"I don't know Sokka said, "but I promise you Zuko, we'll get to the bottom of this, one way or another. Whatever sick bastard caused this, we'll find it out. I need you to stay with me though. We'll gather the others and try to figure out what's going on. I promise." Zuko didn't answer him, only sat still behind the rock and after a while Sokka realized he was only wearing fire nation clothing. He had to be freezing. Taking off his coat, he wrapped it around Zuko and stood up. "Stay here, I'll be back in a minute." With that, he hurried back to the village.

Damn it this was not good. A fire nation prince hiding only a kilometre or something from a village packed with Water Tribe warriors hungry for fire nation blood. What more, it was his friend and a man he'd never abandon. This did not look good at all. Still though he couldn't not do this so he hurried back to the village and got hold of a couple of furs, some dri0ed meat and other food along with a water skin. Getting back to Zuko as fast as he could, he more or less shoved the food into his hands.

"Here," he said hurriedly, "eat." Zuko looked up at him like he was being an idiot but Sokka didn't relent. "Eat!" he more or less snapped and Zuko now obeyed, listlessly chewing on the dried meat. Within a minute Sokka had arranged so Zuko all but had a small camp carved out for himself behind the ice cover. "Now drink," he said when Zuko had swallowed the meat and pushed the waterskin into his hands.

"Are you fattening me up for slaughter?" Zuko said. Sokka guessed it was meant a a joke but it only came across as spiteful. His tone was harsh, almost hateful, and he spoke through clenched teeth.

"When the dark season comes to the south pole there's a golden rule whenever you're out in the wilds," Sokka answered. "Don't think. Don't ponder the future, the past or anything like that. Stay where you are, in the present, and survive. Survival and nothing more, that's all that matters. When the world is out to kill you you survive, period."

"I'm not going to die," Zuko told him lowly and Sokka grinned.

"Glad to hear it," he said, "look, we'll dig out where the others are and meet somewhere. There's got to be some way out of this place and we'll find it together." Putting a hand on Zuko's shoulder, he clenched it somewhat in the most sympathetic gesture he could offer the man.

"Escape?" Zuko asked hoarsely. "We're going to just run away from this?" Sokka looked at him now, seeing how a fire had begun to burn in his eyes.

"What do you mean?" Sokka asked warily, Zuko looking up at him.

"I watched uncle die not a week ago," he said, "my nights are haunted by Ozai sitting on his throne of his ordering me to kill him and memories of more atrocities than I've ever seen, all of them committed by me! What the blazes am I in this world?!"

"Zuko!" Sokka begun again.

"I am a monster!" Zuko snarled, "this world's Zuko is a monster beyond even Ozai! He's a murderous beast used by Ozai as an attack dog! Even if I can go back he'll remain here! He could kill even uncle, what do you think will happen when this Zuko is sent after Aang?!" Sokka stopped at this, realizing he made a very good point. Zuko's inexperience and temperament had been boons for Aang and the others back when Zuko was still their enemies. A psychotic madman with enough skill to have killed Iroh was a wholly different thing. It'd be like Azula, only even more deadly if that Zuko had the same kind of skills as the Zuko Sokka knew.

"Calm down!" he exclaimed nevertheless, "whatever we're going to do, we'll have to take stock first. Look, me and the other men of the village are shipping out for the North pole in a couple of days, meaning I should be able to get a hold of Katara. Do you think you could track down Toph?"

"I... I do not know..." Zuko begun and Sokka slapped him in the face now. It wasn't hard though it was enough to get the man's attention completely.

"I said, do you think you could track down Toph?" he asked, Zuko meeting his gaze in surprise initially. No bets as to why he was so surprised. Couldn't be common for the Fire Lord to be slapped around, not even by the queen and he knew Mai was not some shy, demure little lily of a woman.

"You got it," the haggard fire lord said after a while. "Where do we meet?"

"Gaoling," Sokka said. It was the best bet he felt, a small city in Earth Country that wouldn't get hit due to its lack of any strategic value. Also while he was pretty sure it didn't click quite yet for Zuko, Sokka remembered it as being Toph's home city. As it was now Zuko was in no shape to run around Earth Country, Gaoling was peaceful and quiet and if he'd hazard a guess he'd say Toph was somewhere around there. It was the easier mission of the two and Zuko needed time, Sokka could tell that.

"I know of it," Zuko said listlessly. By the spirits did he look crap. Once again though Sokka couldn't do other than to understand it. The man had loved Iroh dearly, that Sokka knew well, and to see him dead at his feet must have been such a trauma.

"Good," Sokka said, "Gaoling, in three months time, okay?"

"Yeah..." Zuko answered before he begun to get up. Sokka stopped him however.

"Whoah, whoah," he said hurriedly, "not that fast mister. You're in no shape to be going anywhere."

"Wasn't it you who said we had to get going?" Zuko hissed and struggled against Sokka's hand. "Let me go!" he snarled, Sokka in the end shoving Zuko backwards and doing something Suki had taught him a long time ago. He pushed his thumb straight into Zuko's neck and made the man freeze in position.

"Calm, down!" he snapped as he pushed his face close. "damn it Zuko, you're currently in the middle of the south pole in only fire nation getup, you can't have eaten for days by the looks of it and you're confused! If you go running off now you'll kill yourself!" Zuko met his gaze with one that for a second made Sokka worried. The old Zuko, the boy with too much rage in him to handle it, was looking back at him. It was only for a second however and in the end Zuko seemed to calm down at least somewhat.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked after a while and Sokka let go of the nerve he had pinched.

"Stay here," Sokka said, "I'll get some more gear for you to use. There's a stranded fire nation ship not too far from here. The people of the tribe don't go close to it, you can hide there and rest before heading out. I'll make sure you've got proper clothes and food. How did you get here?"

"An attack ship..." Zuko said, "this world's version of me has his personal ship. The crew's all got their tongues burned out. By me!" he hissed and Sokka winced.

"Okay..." he began. Yeah a couple of days away from that place would be a good move.

"But I can't stay," Zuko said as he begun to get up again. Sokka moved to cut him off but Zuko stopped him. "Don't stop me," he said, "if I stop now I'll fall apart. I'll find Toph and do what I can... just don't ask me to stop, if I stand still I'll only have one thing to think about. If I do that I'll end up dying."

Damn it! Sokka didn't know what to do now. It seemed like if he let go of Zuko now the man would start falling apart and might just as well off himself before they got to Gaoling. But then again... he wasn't his sister. He trusted Zuko enough that he'd have to hope his friend could handle this. Letting go of the man, he nevertheless made sure to push the dried meat and water into his hands.

"Eat and drink," he said, "look after yourself Zuko, we need you on this."

"I will..." Zuko answered, getting to his feet and starting to walk away from Sokka. "thank you..."

"Gaoling!" Sokka said, "in three months, be there or be square!" Zuko looked back at him, giving him a weak smile before he turned around and quickly disappeared up the slope. Sokka now raised a hand to his face and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Right there he made the decision that whatever happened he was going to keep his mouth shut about how this away-spiriting business sucked for him. Compared to Zuko he had drawn the long straw. It was like comparing a bamboo stick to a toothpick really.

Sighing, he picked up the stuff Zuko hadn't taken with him and begun back towards the village again. The journey north couldn't start quickly enough. Not only had they Aang to dig out of the iceberg. It seemed that the more they delayed the more Zuko would suffer for it. He prayed to whatever gods that would listen that Zuko would be able to keep himself together. If he was expected to go home and report to Ozai... Sokka shuddered at how poorly that could end.

Reaching the village, he noted that the other men were starting to come out of their homes so he quickly slipped into his home and put away the stuff he carried. Time to work like a polar bear dog with the loading of the ships. The journey north couldn't start soon enough.

* * *

Thankfully it didn't do that either. Two days later, with the rising sun, the men of the southern water tribe boarded their longships and bid their beloved ones goodbye. Sokka found the moment almost eerie in many ways. He had remembered this moment his entire life, how his father had refused to let him come along saying that he was needed at home. Yet now he stood here, wearing the warrior's outfit and standing at the fore of the main ship. Having given the woman that here was his mother but who always would be Gran-gran to him a loving embrace, he had boarded the ship and now looked at the horizon far ahead.

Behind him the warriors of the water tribe were saying their goodbyes to their wives and children, steeling themselves for what might be their last moments together. Sokka had looked away from the scenes of farewells and tears when a man he knew would die on this journey promised his wife and his two daughters that he would return to them and carry with him the most beautiful trophies he could find for them. A little quip about how he'd probably have to spend more time searching for souvenirs than fighting the fire nation if he'd find something as beautiful as his wife had left the woman hugging him in tears and Sokka looking away. If he had felt eagerness during the first evening in this place he now only felt resignation. What a despicable thing war was when it came down to it. In the end Sokka wasn't the least ashamed of admitting that had been happy when the hundred year war had ended. Honor and glory... meh.

"You look quite down brother," Hakoda said next to him and Sokka looked at him. Nope, didn't work for him. This was still "dad" for him. Thank the spirits Hakoda was the older brother at least. That gave him something to work with.

"Just thinking about how many we will be actually bringing home with us when this is over," he said quietly. Hakoda's face turned somewhat mournful as well.

"I try not to think too much about that," he said, "but still, if you must die something like this is probably the best way to do so."

"Other than dying in your bed at the age of 100 with your family surrounding you," Sokka quipped and Hakoda raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure you're okay Sokka?" he asked, "you must have hit your head when falling off the wall." Sokka flinched mentally. Damn it he had slipped! The Sokka of this world wouldn't ever have thought like that!

"Well yeah in my case it's more like with a mug of beer in my hand and some pretty girls around me," he covered up quickly and Hakoda rolled his eyes.

"Of course..." he muttered and Sokka took a breath of relief. That was sloppy of him. He needed to remember himself better. The revelation that the Sokka they knew essentially was possessed by another version of him not of this world couldn't possibly go down well with them. Damn it what a mess!

Sighing, Sokka looked forwards again towards the horizon. The north pole couldn't appear on it fast enough. He wondered just how Katara was doing over there. Would she even be the Katara of his world? He hoped so. She seemed to be his age and thus far the only changes he had seen in the world came from the changes in their age. Still that was all just speculation and he'd have to see for himself. He somewhat regretted not having come up with the way to check if Toph and Katara were from their world soon enough to tell Zuko about it. One word was all that was needed. Aang. The name of their Avatar friend would mean nothing for anyone in this world right now. However to those from his world... yes, that was the best way of telling.

"We sail!" Hakoda now yelled behind him and Sokka heard the drawbridge being pulled in and the sails being set behind him. The other men cheered and soon the ships were all moving out, sailing towards their fellow water tribesmen in the north.

"To the north and to war," he said to himself with grim determination. Once again he was at war, a war he had thought won. Sighing to himself, he wondered just how he was going to be able to pull this off. One thing at a time though he thought to himself as the ships pulled out of the harbour. First the north pole, then Gaoling.

"To the north!" Bato yelled behind him, "and to war!" the Water Tribe warriors yelled out their exultant agreement behind him with wild howls and Sokka found himself pondering it. These were no green recruits, they had seen war many times. Seen it and suffered from it. And yet they cheered like this. Was that a quality which had started to vanish in him after all the years of peace and northern warmth? It bore thinking about and Sokka pondered it as the ship started towards the north.

The journey north became a long and trying one. Sokka realized quickly how spoiled one could get when one had a sky-bison to fly around on. Still, the journey gave him time to think. Think, and reacquaint himself with the realities of war. Peace did make one relax it seemed and Sokka had worked hard to adapt into this new way of life. The "other" Sokka's undisciplined life became strangely enough a boon as his work to get into the rhythm of the crew was something to be cherished to them while his slip-ups might be irritating but still also expected. Still it was embarrassing still and Sokka only doubled his efforts to get into the groove again.

On the coast off Chin Village a fire nation ship became visible in the distance. It soon turned to head on an intercept course with them, no doubt thinking they were simply a fishing fleet or something. Hakoda had acted quickly, ordering the men to hide their armor and make themselves ready. When the ship, a patrol cruiser, came up next to the closest of the water tribes longships Hakoda and Sokka had led fifty warriors as they dove under the ship and climbed the vessel from behind. The fire nation soldiers had not stood any chance, being thrown off their ship and into the sea.

It had been strange in a way. Sokka had found himself as the first man climbing aboard the ship, drawing his sword and descending upon the surprised enemy like a hungry wolf in what came to become a swift and bloody battle. The enemy had been green sailors sent no doubt on an easy assignment to give them experience. Now all they got was a watery grave and the already seasoned Water Tribe warriors suffered only minor injuries. Blowing a hole in the fire nation ship, the tribesmen sailed away from the cruiser as it slowly sunk into the ocean. Wineskins were cracked open and congratulations traded amongst the men, Sokka not really eager to participate in it all but forcing himself to do so.

Like it or not, this was in the end war. A warrior had to take what joys he could get. "Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die," as someone had once said. He therefore had leaned back and enjoyed the celebrations and the congratulations. The people around him knew well this was a small victory against an inexperienced foe. The prune liquor and the dried meat feasted upon was the same as the bragging and the taunts levied at the fire nation: a way for them to psych themselves up for the future, when much more dire battles would come.

Sokka had a lot of things to ponder himself. His sword-fighting style, learned from sifu Piandao who incidentally in this realm seemed to consider Sokka equally much a student and a rival (awesome!), was all about mobility and technique. It was a gentleman's way of fighting, a mobile, one-on-one style. The Water Tribesmen's styles were much more brutal. Using thick shields and heavy shortswords they advanced in shield walls upon their foes and ground them back. It was a soldier's way of fighting, a style belonging in the thick of it. As it looked that would also be the terrain in the coming war. Sokka was a brilliant warrior and all but his style had been taught for when he traveled with the Avatar across the world. Now he'd be involved in pitched battles and drawn-out campaigns of war instead. He wondered how his skills would hold up in that environment.

Their journey proceeded without further intermezzos however and a month after they had set out from the south pole they drew near the lands of the northern water tribes the icebergs were all around and Sokka remembered his first arrival in these lands back in his version of the world. Appa had out of nowhere been captured in ice within seconds and waterbender-driven ships had swarmed out from everywhere around them. He wondered if they were hiding here now as well. He supposed they would, it would be strange for them to not do so.

As they sailed amongst the icebergs Sokka pondered what would await. Katara no doubt had revealed her necklace to that waterbending master, Pakku, and knocked some sense into that man's skull. The presence of southern tribe waterbenders would probably have been a boon to the northern tribes but then again, Sokka couldn't honestly say he remembered any waterbenders being around when he was a kid. Already by then the Fire Nation had taken almost all of them. How many had his sister brought here? Still, only Katara would be a boon for the northern tribes chieftain... At the thought of the man his daughter appeared in front of Sokka's mind's eye. Yue... the princess of the northern tribes... his first great love, the angelic young woman who had died to restore the moon spirit to life.

Knowing what he knew now, there was no way in hell that Sokka would allow that to happen. If that man Zhao tried to kill the moon spirit this time he'd get two feet of meteoric iron in his chest before he knew it. Realizing that his hands were clenching the railing, Sokka forced himself to calm down. Fifteen years had passed since her death but it still hurt for him to remember it. The helplessness, the survivor's guilt, the feeling that the world became a darker place with her passing... he still couldn't bear the thought of experiencing it again. But now... He'd meet her again, only it wouldn't be that Yue even though it was... Sighing quietly to himself, he glanced around to check that nobody was watching him. He had to stop thinking like this, he was an adult and Yue would be half his age Sokka knew he'd have to ignore it. He had probably placed her on a mental pedestal the actual Yue couldn't live up to either way.

Then a sudden crash and the roaring sound of rushing water made Sokka's heart leap into his throat. The ship came to a halt as something caught it and made it stop in an instant. In an almost instinctive response Sokka tore out his sword and boomerang and he spun around to face the sound with his sword held in front of him and the boomerang raised for a throw. The other warriors had reacted as well and within seconds all of the men aboard the ships had thrown themselves at their weapons and raised them.

However amongst the icebergs in front of them it wasn't any sort of enemy that had appeared. Instead it was a large plateau of ice that now towered in front of them. What more, upon it familiar faces could be seen amongst the dozen waterbenders standing there. At the front of the group none other than master Pakku could be found, the man as dour-looking as always. Beside him though, standing with an only marginally more cheerful expression one her face, stood his sister.

Katara had in the later years become more and more motherly. The kids she had borne Aang had done their part but it was something more to it. She had authority in spades, had always had it and it only had grown. Usually it was a softer kind of authority, reasonable, but it could in an instant become like steel. That was also the look on her face at the moment. Arms folded and face grim, his sister looked like she had just found out he had eaten her last crab puff.

Hakoda, who had grabbed his spear within a split second and raised it, lowered the weapon now and put the butt of it to the deck when looking down at them. Looking up at the newly arrived waterbenders, he put his free hand to his chest.

"It's good to finally meet you, warriors of the northern tribes!" he called out, "I am Hakoda, chieftain of the southern water tribes! We come to stand beside our brothers and sisters of the north in this war!" Sokka sheathed his weapons as well, seeing that there would be no fight here.

"You are welcome here sons of the south," master Pakku said before he raised his hands and the ice around their ships came undone. "our apologies for the rough greeting. These days caution is prudent."

"There was no harm done so I cannot hold it against you," Hakoda said, Pakku bowing. Sokka idly thought to himself that the tension was so thick in the air that he could cut it with a knife. Still it made sense he supposed. Something he had picked up in his years after the war was the differences between the southern and the northern water tribes. His people were a much more brutal sort in comparison to the more... refined he supposed the word was, northerners. Theirs was a rigidly ordered society of hierarchies and proper respect. His was a warrior's and survivor's society that didn't mince words and elected their leaders. Obviously things would be a bit tense here in the beginning.

"I bid you welcome to the north," Pakku said, "let me now hand you over to master Katara, whom I believe you know." Katara walked off the platform at this and used the ice to lift herself down to the ship with practiced ease. Her face wasn't the least friendly and Sokka felt a sting of anxiety. The memories this world's Sokka had of Katara was those of an ice queen, an angry, almost resentful woman who had never forgiven Sokka for "betraying" his people. The death of their father in this world, Grangran's husband, had shattered their family with Sokka leaving to travel the world, Hakoda being trust into the role of chieftain and Katara become single-mindedly driven to protect not only her family but her entire tribe. He found himself begging that this would be the Katara he knew.

"Katara," Hakoda said warmly, coming up to her with open arms. The icy facade seemed to crack only a little now as Katara leaned in and accepted his embrace. She even returned it somewhat. Sokka realized that this really had to be a situation nobody else ever had found himself in. He was just about to go up and hug his sister which was business as usual when they saw each other but now he didn't know if she'd return it or stab him or something. Also considering that they had appearances to keep up... gah, troublesome!

Still, putting on his widest smile, he walked up to her with arms out to the sides. It was worth a try at least. Katara, who just had pulled away from the embrace she had shared with Hakoda, looked at him and Sokka found himself almost nailed to the floor by one of the coldest glares she had ever given him.

"Sokka," she said coldly and Sokka felt the cold sweat in seconds.

"The one and only," he said with a somewhat forced smile, "no hug for me?"

"After all this time..." Katara begun, her voice colder than the ice she had just leaped off. "Did you think you'd be welcomed back just like that?"

"You don't think I'm worth at least a chance?" Sokka asked, carefully weighing his words.

"I've yet to see what kind of man you are now," Katara said icily, "sure, perhaps some strange magic transplanted a new version of you into your head. Unless that's what happened I'm not going to expect anything out of you." Sokka blinked. Okay that turn of phrase couldn't have been by chance. It was too precise to be that. Sokka therefore decided to take the risk.

"Actually there was," he said lowly as he leaned in with a sour look on his face, "I'm an alternate Sokka from a world where you and I traveled with the Avatar. We had a fire nation prince and a blind little earthbender girl in the group too. You shagged the Avatar." He was sooo dead if this turned out to be a dud. Knowing what his dreams had shown him about this Katara, he would most probably end up in a block of ice. It was therefore with an endless amount of relief that Sokka saw the sudden surprise in Katara's eyes. For a second she lost her composure completely and Sokka saw that she understood what he meant. Jackpot! Freaking jackpot! This was his sister!

"Enough!" Hakoda hissed, pulling the two of them together. "Sokka, you stop that this instant! Katara has given everything for our people while you were cavorting around the four nations. She's a hero and deserves to be respected as such! And Katara!" he said turning back to his sister, "Sokka's come back to us! Whatever is in the past is in the past and I won't have you questioning the loyalty of one of our finest warriors as well as our brother just because you can't let go of the past!" The chieftain he called brother in this realm was livid, angrier than Sokka could remember seeing him, and he immediately backed down from any more comments. He noticed that the northern water tribesmen seemed uncomfortable to say the least as well. Amongst them public disagreements just didn't happen. In the south the view was that if you had a problem you took it there and now. To them there was no sense in skulking around with it. Sokka raised his hands and took a step back, signaling his intent to let it go, and Katara managed to regain her composure and cleared her throat.

"He stays at the fore," she told Hakoda before turning around and walking towards the aft and the rudder. His sister was indeed awesome to manage to collect herself that fast. Sokka therefore turned around and walked to the fore of the ship without a single word, sitting down there and making sure to stay quiet during the rest of the trip. It wasn't easy, that was for sure. The fact that it really was his sister made him want to cheer. Still though after all these days he could cool his heels for at least a few more hours. He therefore did so, sitting down and beginning to check his gear patiently.

He had many times wondered just what sifu Piandao would think about the fact that he usually carried enough weapons to equip half a peasant uprising. There was of course the Space Sword and his trusty boomerang. There was also his machete though, a weapon closer to the swords the other men used in appearance and balance. This was a smaller weapon though, as useful as a woodcutting tool as a knife even though it took a steady hand to use it for the latter. Sokka knew that however, he could shave with this thing if needed. The back of it was also lined with sharp, jagged shark-teeth which made it a great tool for sawing. On top of that there was the psychological advantages in threatening someone with a sawtoothed edge that would rend flesh into messy bits rather than cut it. He also had a battle club with him. For all his belief in the versatility of the sword as well as his skill with it you couldn't deny that many situations could be handled just as well with a good ol' club. Finally he had decided to carry a spear and shield as well, courtesy of his tribe. Along with the wolf armour it marked him as one of them fully and Sokka had long since abandoned the need for being flashy or unique. Carrying the wolf armour and stand shoulder to shoulder with his people was plenty enough honour for him thank you very much.

In the midst of his work he felt someone staring at him and looked up. At the aft of the ship Katara was stranding by the steering pole, the tiller, and looked straight at him. He could interpret the look on her face easily. Naked longing and anxiety was carved into it and he realized once more how lucky he was in comparison to the others. Zuko's life was a nightmare come true and Katara had been torn into this realm away from not just her husband but also her children. A girl and a boy, both of them beautiful little tykes with all of Aang's energy and Katara's fire both. Damn this had to be tough on her. Sokka wondered just how much more desperate he'd be to get home if, for example, his relationship with Suki had progressed like Aang's and Katara's. It had ended five years after the war's end as they both realized there was none of the old fire left between them, only two people too busy to see each other more than occasionally. But what if she had been home in their world of origin with a pair of their children, then what? He'd be ready to murder to get home he supposed. Therefore he gave her a small, kind smile and a nod. She looked away quickly but Sokka could swear that he saw something glisten in her eyes. His indomitable sister was actually tearing up at seeing a familiar face...

Whoever was responsible for this would suffer. Sokka made that call now. Be it spirit or human, it had a few inches of saw-toothed machete edge to the crotch to expect. Sokka went back to work with an angry feeling in his chest now.

"Don't be so down Sokka," Bato said now as the man came to sit down beside him. "I'm sure Katara will warm up to you."

"Hmh..." Sokka muttered, remembering the pieces of memories that had bit by bit come to him over the course of a month. Hakoda's father... his grandfather in the original world... had died at the hands of the firebenders five years ago now. Katara's reaction in this world had been to lead an exodus for the remaining waterbenders north. His reaction had been to hunt. His first belief that he had been an itinerant swordsman had only been half correct. Through the dreams and the scattered memories Sokka had seen enough to realize that thankfully he hadn't been quite that useless.

When the man who in this realm was his father had died it seemed like there was a cutoff point in Sokka's mind. Rage had descended on him, a rage that had driven him to hunt across the world for the Fire Nation's Southern Raiders, the military unit responsible for it. He still hadn't seen how he had fared in that hunt but it gave him some comfort that he at least had done something sensible. And yet why was he hiding all that? For some reason that Sokka wanted the truth about why he ran away from his tribe to stay hidden and Sokka wondered why. After all, wouldn't a quest for revenge be preferable to being seen as a useless person? For now it'd stay hidden though, Sokka wasn't someone to tell on others... did it count as telling on others though? After all they were the same person... Sokka decided to leave it there feeling he'd probably go nuts if he thought too much about it.

So wrapped up in his thinking he was that he did not notice them drawing close to the great city that was the centre of the northern water tribes' civilization. Bato had to knock him on the shoulder to make him look up. Yet, when he actually did that he found himself still awed by it. The great wall that they approached was truly a marvel and as it slid to the sides to let them in it happened so subtly that it seemed natural. Sokka smiled slightly as he watched his ship enter the gate into the city and he put his weapons down to enjoy the sight. Despite all the wonders he had seen there was something special about this place and as their ships traveled into the city via the system of canals and locks he watched the city passing by with a distant sense of melancholy. The pre-attack capitol city of the northern water tribes truly was a marvel to him even after all this time.

Yep. A beautiful city and Katara being the person he knew instead of the one he had feared he'd find. That should have been enough really. Why did he find himself throwing glances on the canals around him to look after that one person? He knew it was stupid to even look after her, the girl who had been his first great love. Even if he did see her, she'd be fourteen years old, only a child compared to him, the already aging one. Yet... he didn't feel old, not really. A lot of him was still young on the inside and that part still held the love for princess Yue alive. Meh! He had to focus; he couldn't arrive to this city and be found drooling over someone half his age the first thing he did.

He noticed that Katara was looking at him now and looked at her, seeing how she gave him a smile and a gaze that told him she knew precisely what he was thinking of. It was uncanny really. He had seen that gaze enough to know that yep, his entire train of thoughts was clear for her to see. Sighing, he lowered his head and stared down at the ground. Who the hell was he to sit here pining? There had never been anything more than something tentative between him and Yue. Katara was the one who had children at home. Shouldn't he focus on getting her home?

Swept up once more in this blanket of conflicting and confusing emotions, Sokka chose to simply sit in the boat and refocus on his gear. Screw all of this, he wouldn't get anywhere pining after fourteen-year-olds. War! Avatar! Those things were the kind of things he should be thinking about. He sighed to himself and looked up after a while, seeing that they were approaching the royal palace. So his journey ended and in success too... so why did he all of a sudden feel like he just wanted to say "screw it" and jump overboard?

The longships pulled up by the harbour below the palace in one straight line and Hakoda looked towards the palace for a second before looking back.

"Suit up!" he yelled, "today we'll show the north what we will add to their ranks!" he finished and donned the wolf's helmet.

"Arooo!" the men all yelled and weapons were grabbed and armour donned within seconds. Sokka took a deep breath and donned his outfit as well. Time to shine...

The men of the southern water tribes leaped off the ship now, launching themselves off it like packs of wolves as they begun to quickly move towards the palace. Sokka had been one of the first off the ship and recalled the plan as he ran beside Hakoda. Hakoda wanted to make a statement, show the southern tribes' strength. Therefore he moved at a fast jog, hearing how hundreds of feet behind him made the ground rumble. They approached the palace swiftly, moving over the courtyard with long steps and armed to the teeth.

It was then that he saw her.

Standing beside her father on the stairs up to the central building of the palace, princess Yue looked out across the field with a somewhat anxious look on her face. It kicked him in the guts to see the girl as the swarm of approaching warriors made her feel uncertain, even afraid. He just wanted to stop and calm down but stuck to the plan. There was nothing else to do. If he stopped now it'd throw the entire show into chaos. Having the place of honour right next to the chieftain sucked...

Hakoda, who was running almost at a full pelt, ground to a halt only a dozen or so metres away from the northern tribes king and with a single swipe of his arm he commanded the entire remaining force to stop. The rumble was almost deafening as within seconds the entire southern water tribe army came to a halt, forming a single, giant rectangle with perfect lines a few metres behind Hakoda, Bato and Sokka, who all stood at the front.

"Chief Arnook of the north!" Hakoda roared, "I am chief Hakoda of the south, here to aid my brothers and sisters of the north in this war!"

"Your arrival brings joy to my heart," chief Arnook said calmly. Sokka marveled at the differences at display. His fa... brother seemed like a proud, howling wolf and Arnook was as calm as could be. He just hoped that this wouldn't bite them in the blubber and make them seem like barbarians. "Already we have been honoured by the presence of your waterbenders," Arnook continued, "To see your martial might stand here as well gives me confidence that this war is far from lost yet." Hakoda bowed his head and put his fist to his breastplate. "I know already your sister chief Hakoda, who are the ones standing by your side?"

"My brother in blood Sokka," Hakoda said, indicating Sokka who raised his hands and put them together in greeting. He held the sword in his hands as he greeted the chief as befitted a swordsmaster. "And my brother in all but blood Bato," Bato bowed his head as well, standing with his spear in the ground and his shield by his side.

"My daughter Yue," Arnook said and showed the princess in question to them. Yue smiled somewhat weakly, bowing to them and making Sokka flinch again. Spirits... they had to seem like an army of wild beasts to the poor girl. Hakoda, he and Bato all greeted her as well and Sokka did his best to keep the butterflies in his stomach under control. Bad Sokka! No drooling after kids!

"Though we might seem brutish," Hakoda said now all of a sudden, "don't fear us honoured princess. Our wrath is reserved for our foes only. For you and for all our brothers and sisters of the north we hold only a bond of kinship as strong as that of a wolf's. You have nothing to fear from any of us. My honour is my guarantee for this." Yue seemed somewhat calmed by this assurance. Her following smile wasn't nearly as frightened and she bowed again.

"Men of the south!" Arnook said now, "I bid you welcome to the north as honoured guests! Tonight you all eat from my storehouses! As you will once more when the war is over!" Sokka was about to whistle at that. That was not too shabby an honour to be offered to any single person when it was the chieftain who did it. For an entire army to get it... on one hand he realized that Arnook had a thing for the grandiose gestures and on the other hand he wondered just how rich the north was compared to the south. Still, the following response he could join with some heart in it.

"Aroo!" the united army of the southern tribes howled and Sokka joined in. Seemed they had gotten off to a good start up here. Heck, princess Yue didn't even flinch when the army in front of her howled. Still, forcing himself to look away from her, he realized that this evening would get very, freaking, trying, until he could sneak away and talk with Katara.

* * *

"Very, freaking, trying" was only the first three words on the five page document that Sokka felt was needed to describe just what he thought of the feast that became arranged for them. While not quite as extravagant as the feast that had been arranged when he and Katara had once arrived here with Aang it nevertheless was quite massive, not the least since it seemed they had managed to pack the entire southern tribe army into the massive banqueting hall. But yeah, the food was as good as it had been back then and master Pakku and his students gave quite the show. To his surprise however Katara followed with her own show and he'd be damned if she wasn't even a little better than Pakku. What more though, interspersed throughout the show were this rhythm. Four beats per second followed by four seconds of silence. If he'd needed more proof this was "his" Katara he now had it.

However the feast just kept dragging on and on and on! It seemed it'd never end and as food and drink vanished down the gullets of his tribesmen and the mood only rose higher and higher his kept sinking. He had no bloody time for sitting around here! Sitting absently gnawing on a piece of pickled fish, Sokka was doing his best to endure when fate showed itself as having a lousy sense of humour.

Princess Yue entered the chamber and moved towards towards the empty seat beside him. Sokka spotted it only seconds before she sat down and he felt like he froze into ice instantly. For heaven's sake! Wasn't this too much?! Evidently not. It seemed that he still had to suffer a bit more in order to amuse some higher power of the more perverse kind and Sokka gritted his teeth as princess Yue, as graceful and as elf-like as he remembered her, sat down next to him. Sokka forced himself to look towards her and give what he thought was a respectful nod but it probably looked like him trying to headbutt something between her and him. Yue responded with a nod of her own, an endlessly much more graceful one than his headbutting.

Turning back to the prune juice he was drinking, Sokka sighed to himself upon realizing that the waterbenders up on the giant stage had started another number. That would mean about fifteen more minutes of a party he couldn't wait to leave. Fifteen more minutes of having to sit next to Yue and try desperately to not initiate a conversation with her.

Or wait. Sokka found himself uncertain now. Why precisely was it so desperately important that he didn't even look at her? Blinking a couple of times, he pondered that question and all of a sudden found himself without any real answer. It was strange... he had been so sure that he needed to stay away... but why? Hesitating for a while, Sokka eventually picked a piece of dried fish from the plate in front of him and chomped down on it. That, and a quick drink of prune juice would have to do for courage and he turned towards Yue with as noncommittal an attitude as he could. Said princess was at the moment sitting down and watching the show but Sokka could tell, even after not having seen her for all these years, that she was feeling as awkward as he was. Meh...

"Someone I met once called this the "Awkward Zone"," he said and got her attention. Yue looked at him somewhat quizzically.

"Excuse me?" she asked and her voice made Sokka shiver. Yep... it was her. That voice was exactly like he remembered her. The smile he gave her now carried more than just friendliness. Melancholy loss, joy over seeing her again and more all was wrapped in it and it was one of the warmest smiles he ever had given anyone.

"Two people who do not quite know each other find themselves sitting side by side with no idea on how to break the ice," he explained, "he said there was a way of defeating it though: you just have to find some common ground."

"That sounds like a good idea," Yue agreed and Sokka bowed his head somewhat.

"Indeed it does," he said, "so yeah, I like food. Do you?" he joked and Yue raised her hand to cover her mouth now as a small giggle came from her.

"I must say that I do," she smiled and Sokka grinned. This was going quite a bit better than the first time he had met her. Yay for personal growth.

"Fantastic," he said, pouring himself some of the Five-flavour soup in a bowl nearby. "I'm Sokka, brother of chief Hakoda."

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance mister Sokka," Yue said kindly, "I am princess Yue."

"Soup?" he asked her, indicating the bowl of Five-flavour soup and Yue nodded. He poured up some for her as well and handed it to her. All of a sudden he was in a shamelessly good mood. It felt like things were as they should somehow. Chatting with Yue like this after all these years warmed his heart.

The conversation came to flow on quite nicely after this. Even though Sokka admitted he felt a bit funny here and there he nevertheless persevered in the conversation and with all the memories this Sokka had had of his adventures there was quite the lot of stories he could spin. Yue was a rapt audience to these stories and Sokka felt how he thoroughly enjoyed himself weaving these stories for her.

"...so it's kind of there," he said about an hour or so later, "when you're ducking into a swamp, covered in semi-fried dough and with turtleducks swarming in to get a bite out of it that you start to thinking that "I need to take a good long look at myself"." Yue was now laughing openly at his story despite her best attempts to hide it behind her hand in order to save some decorum. Sokka felt blissful at the sight, thinking that this was how she should be. Happily laughing and smiling, not dead.

"Did this really happen?" Yue asked him with eyes glittering with mirth and Sokka nodded.

"Believe it or not," he told her before leaning in, "I'm not really welcome around there these days though." Yue giggled again.

"I can't imagine why," she told him and Sokka shrugged. "You know," she added now, "you aren't at all what I had expected." Sokka perked up now. Expected? Interesting... Raising one eyebrow, he looked at her.

"Dare I ask who your informant was?" he asked and Yue's smile weakened somewhat.

"Your sister," she said with a slight bit of hesitation, "master Katara." Sokka flinched internally at this. Ah... yikes. That couldn't have been a flattering image she'd have spun about him. The Katara of this world stood in all his memories as a harsh woman who hated his guts. And from what he heard and remembered she had been here for five years. Yiiikes. Also that reminded him, hadn't the party gone on long enough that he could excuse himself right now? In fact hadn't it done that like twenty minutes ago? Looking around, Sokka saw that Katara had disappeared from her seat next to master Pakku and he swallowed. Oops...

"Well," he begun, wondering how in the blazes he was going to be able to excuse himself and at the same time not make it sound like he had been offended by Yue bringing it up. "I won't say that she's wrong. Only that I've been having some reasons to rethink my life recently." He supposed that was true, if a bit of an unconventional way of putting it. Sokka still didn't know just what had happened most recently for this world's Sokka. In the dreams time seemed to fall asunder but nevertheless it seemed as through the most recent... six months or so before "his" arrival were completely unknown to Sokka as it was. "Don't worry princess, I'm quite sure I can outdo the man you've been told of." Yue bowed her head towards him with a smile and Sokka mentally exhaled in relief. He felt like he had dodged quite the massive boulder on this one. "Also I think that will have to be my cue to leave," he said now and begun to get up.

"Oh, I did not mean to insult you," Yue said quickly with a somewhat startled look on her face and Sokka waved a dismissive hand towards her.

"You didn't," he grinned, "takes a lot more than that to insult me. I just had a bit too much soup," he said and winked at her, "let's leave it there princess," he said as Yue's eyes widened a bit upon realizing what he was hinting at. "A pleasure meeting you, hope to see you again." With that, he departed quickly and snuck into the corridor. Hopefully Katara wouldn't have waited for too long.

He found his sister standing by one of the windows overlooking the city below them. Katara didn't seem to notice him initially, the woman just looking out with a distant look on her face that once again made Sokka think about how painful this had to be to her. He had things he could long after back in this time, Katara hadn't.

They had to get home soon he thought once more to himself. Walking out into the open from the corner where he had come to stop to look at her, he knocked at the wall to get her attention. He got it in spades. His sister looked towards him instantly and when she saw it was him she pushed herself off the windowsill she was leaning on before walking hurriedly up to him and giving him an embrace. Sokka didn't make a thing out of it and instead only returned the embrace.

"How are you?" he asked, holding his sister in his arms and feeling once again the happiness as well as a sense of sadness over that it was her. To have her here meant a lot to him but at the same time once more he hated that she had to suffer through this.

"I... I don't know," Katara said, "wherever this is it's a perfect copy of the world back then. I've been checking, every single date I could check towards is perfectly in place."

"We've been spirited away," Sokka said. Of course his sister would start checking for inconsistencies. It was so Katara. "Remember that solstice? This has to be something similar."

"But how can you be so sure about that?" she asked him hurriedly. The mood between them was stressed, tense.

"Dunno," Sokka admitted. "But I've got no other explanation for all of this."

"Shit..." Katara said, raising her hand to her face in a desperate gesture. "Then some spirit must be responsible. But who?"

"I dunno," Sokka said once again, "still, I met Zuko, he's here too. He's gone to Gaoling, perhaps Toph is there as well. I came here to tell you and get you along. In two months' time we must be there. Then we can work out a plan of some kind."

"Gaoling?" Katara asked him, "that's on the other side of the world!" she said angrily.

"But it was close at hand for Zuko!" Sokka hissed, "he's the "Mad Dragon" in this world. He awoke in this world standing over Iroh's corpse! A corpse the Zuko of this world had made!" Katara stopped in her tracks now. Her eyes opened wide as her hands went to cover her mouth in shock.

"Oh spirits..." she said breathlessly. "that... that..." she was at a loss for words now and Sokka pressed on.

"I sent him to Gaoling because nothing ever happens there," he told her, "he'll get a couple of months or something to breathe and try to deal with that. Yeah I admit it, I'm running on instinct here. Don't know what else I could do."

"Right, right," Katara said quickly, looking around with an uncertain look on her face. "spirits what a mess..."

"You don't know half of it," Sokka said before deciding that it was getting too gloomy, "But hey, at least you got to be awesome, the me here apparently was a tit."

"Please don't try to joke this away Sokka," Katara said, "I've already spent a month here away from my children and Aang both. Wait, Aang!" she said now, "is there any trace of him?"

"Not a bit," Sokka sighed. "I mean though, considering what we know..." From the looks of it there was a risk Aang was stuck inside the iceberg still. Katara understood what he meant even though he didn't say it and she nodded slowly.

"If so we gotta dig him out," she said. "we dig him out and let him defeat Ozai and then we can figure out what to do."

"Unless he's just a kid here..." Sokka muttered and Katara looked at him.

"Don't even mention that possibility," she told him lowly. "Gaoling it is then. Now I just need to find a reason to leave for two months without causing an uproar."

"You're that important here?" Sokka asked and Katara nodded.

"This world's version of me showed up here four years ago and started turning everything on its head from day one," she told him, "She's more or less bullied her into a position of respect here. Master Pakku was almost killed by her during their duel."

"Woah..." Sokka said and blinked at the idea. He knew his sister had a temper true, and considering the life she had led it must have had a lot of reason to flare up. But something like that...

"That's the least you can say," Katara sighed, "she seems to have been in a constant state of barely-checked rage. When I woke up and behaved like a normal person people wondered if I was feeling well. "

"You adopted that persona pretty fast didn't you?" Sokka asked with a smirk. "I know the feeling though. I called Hakoda "dad" pretty much the first thing I did." Katara winced and Sokka grinned in response. "Yep," he said, "thank the spirits Bato thought I was joking."

"We have to keep it hidden don't we?" Katara asked now after a lull in the conversation. Sokka pursed his lips and nodded.

"I can't see any other way," he said, "I mean if we walk up to Hakoda and say "hey, we're not the Katara and Sokka you know. We're alternate versions from a world where we're your kids!"

"He'd think we were insane," Katara nodded, "that or just messing with him... And either alternative won't help us in either direction. Ugh..."

"Meh..." Sokka said in agreement. "Gaoling... any ideas?"

"I'm drawing a blank," Katara said, "you?"

"Maybe," he said, "it won't be perfect but I figure it could work. Remember the swamp water benders?"

"Yeah?" Katara said. "How so?"

"I can't say for sure if this world's Sokka has met them or heard of them before," Sokka said, "but Hakoda and the others can't do that either. We could say that there's a potential ally to be found amongst those people and that the guy who knows about them as well as an awesome water bender should go to check in on them. If someone complains you can wave an icicle or something at them." Katara looked at him and after a while she smiled widely.

"Have I told you how much I love that little brain of yours?" she asked him and Sokka grinned.

"Not this week," he said and Katara rolled her eyes with a sigh. "But yeah, that'll have to do. So tomorrow we'll say that we have had a "long chat", arrived at some kind of agreement and you're giving me one chance to prove myself?"

"And this chance is a trip we'll do to that swamp to try to gain some new some allies!" Katara said, "brilliant Sokka!" Sokka leaned back now with the arms out to the side as he basked in the praise.

"Damn straight," he said smugly and Katara shoved him a bit. The mood was somewhat upbeat now but soon it got brought down again, courtesy of Katara.

"I..." she said now after a while. She had turned to look out of the window again with her arms folded. "I saw you chatting with the princess." Sokka let out an explosive sigh at this. There it came... though could he blame her for being concerned.

"Yeah," he said plainly, being silent after that.

"Sokka..." Katara begun softly, "I don't think that's a good idea."

"I know..." he answered reluctantly. "I know it's not the Yue we met the first time... but still, she's the exact same as I remember her." He had to bite his lip now, otherwise he wasn't quite sure what he'd do.

"This is precisely what I don't want to see happen," Katara said, "even if she is, you aren't the same as you were back then. What do you hope for?" Sokka sighed again.

"I..." he said. He knew it was wrong. He shouldn't confuse the Yue he had loved with this one. It was all true what Katara was worried about. He knew it and still he had done it. "I don't know," he said after a while. "She makes me happy... as happy as I was back then and I know it's stupid but..."

"We'll get out of here as soon as possible," Katara promised him now, giving him a gentle embrace. Sokka sighed a third time and reached up to hold onto her hand. Why was this all of a sudden so important for him? It had been fifteen years, he should have moved past that. The question arose to him now if he really had. Or was it perhaps just the fact that now the impossible had happened and that he had found Yue again?

But no... he couldn't make her the Yue he had met as a young boy. He was an adult man after all and last time he checked he wasn't a creep running after teenage girls. Not even that wonderful angel of a girk whose time in the world had been too short. Sokka shook his head to clear it now, no! That was forbidden for him to think of! He was thirty years old! Twice her age! They had to leave. It was for the best. They shouldn't get tied down trying to recreate things that had happened when they were half the age they were now.

"I'm glad you're here Sokka," Katara told him and Sokka turned around to embrace his sister more seriously.

"I won't make the obvious joke," he said with a weak smile, "I'm glad you're here too. Ready to relive our teenage adventures?" he asked as he pulled back and looked at her with a grin. Katara rolled her eyes but couldn't help but laugh weakly nevertheless. Sokka felt happy at the sound. It was not like with Yue but still it felt good. It was good to have his sister here, the most reliable woman in the world, here.

* * *

It was an early morning the day after Katara's and Sokka's reunion and Sokka had awoken at dawn as usual. Feeling antsy about what was coming he had decided to clear his head with some training so that was why dawn found him out at the courtyard. He had found an empty corner where he had taken up position with his sword. Of all his possessions, the Space Sword was the most precious of them all.

Once he had lost it, during the battle high above the Earth Nation against Ozai's armada of airships. He had been forced to throw it in order to save Suki and Toph from certain death and watched in sorrow afterwards how it had fallen down towards the world below. And yet even with that he had regained it thanks to Toph. The small piece of space earth he had given her from what remained after forging the space sword had amazingly enough made it possible for her to find it. On the fifth anniversary of Ozai's defeat Toph had arrived to the festivities late and dirty but holding Sokka's Space Sword in her hands. Sokka had never loved Toph more than in that moment, he could have kissed her.

Now, with his sword, HIS sword, in his hands he begun to do the usual forms. These predetermined sets of movements and strikes were not so much for use in battle as they were to simply get into the groove and remember the finer details in how you fought. They had no names as far as he knew beyond their number. Sifu Piandao had never been that much into giving stuff fancy names but Sokka had been playing around with giving them a bit more iconic names.

First form was a set of basic strikes and steps more meant to memorize the right areas to strike. Sokka called it the Darting Dragonflyswallow, being reminded of its movements in how it was performed. It was quick, precise and no-nonsense. One step and strike, two steps to the side and strike. Three steps in a semi-circle forwards and strike and so forth.

Second form he called the Pacing Panthersnake simply. It was very circular in its movements and reminded him of Aang's airbending. The idea was to move in a circle and get in behind your opponent to make him defenseless that way. Long yet balanced steps made at a high, steady pace. It was murder on the legs the first times you did it though.

The third form was a bit more brutal. A more aggressive form based around quick, explosive attacks mainly of the thrusting variety. If executed well this form brought you up to the opponent and gave you a shot at his neck from several meters away. The Leaping Leopardmonkey was perhaps a bit much as a name but hey, he was getting there.

Fourth was where it started to get fun and that was also as far as he had gotten with the alliterations. It was acrobatic and blindly swift. The Furious Falconhound as he called it unleashed barrages of fast attacks against your opponent from different angles. So yeah Sokka had adapted a whole slew of Zuko's moves into it, especially those he had brought back from that little exodus to re-learn firebending. It worked which was the important part and also it was pretty damn sweet to behold.

The fifth form's name came from Katara, Mist over the Sea. Of all the forms he knew it was probably the most beautiful. As graceful as could be yet still lethal, the small moves you made could bring you entire feet closer to an opponent without him even realizing it before it was too late when combined with the swirling, almost dancing steps of the style.

The sixth one he had only a placeholder name for "All things as One". It wasn't really a form to begin with. Instead it was a mindset, a threshold to have reached in one's skill. As sifu Piandao had said, the final form is to have no form. To Sokka the lesson was simple: do whatever you want and need as long as it's done flawlessly. And for Sokka that meant guile, speed and precision.

Having already moved through the previous forms the last hour, Sokka was now thoroughly warmed up when he came to a stop and took one deep breath. Closing his eyes, he envisioned them. One, two, four, eight and sixteen they appeared around him in front of his mind's eye. Shadow figures holding swords, figures who were composites of the many people he had fought in his life. He could envision every last one of them, see their movements and how they held their blades.

Twisting his wrist, he lashed the sword out to the side and the shadow figures around him startled, stepping back in uncertainty. Sokka kept his eyes closed. If he looked now he'd spoil the training. Two seconds later he charged against the first two imaginary opponents.

These two were quite quick but their blades were too heavy which made them unable to keep up as he lashed out and stuck them each across the torso. They faded away to his inner eye as he sidestepped and riposted the third man with a quick thrust. This he followed up with a jump that brought him spinning around horizontally to dodge the next two strikes and mid-air he struck down one of his attacker. Landing on all fours, he used long, sweeping steps to get in behind the next opponent and outmaneuver the remaining shadow assailants.

A small grin had come onto his lips now. He loved this type of training. With an imagination as powerful as his these people really felt alive. At times he wasn't even sure he'd be able to beat them, so good they were. This time he wasn't going to give them the chance though and just as he finished his quick dodge he put his sword in a backhand grip and stabbed it backwards to deal with another.

It took him five minutes all in all to finish this form. He never knew what awaited when using it, as it should be. Yet when he came to a stop it was mid-spin and his body halted almost in an instant. It was only his arm which continued moving and said movement brought the Space Sword back into its sheath.

Then came the applause. Opening his eyes with almost a yelp, Sokka looked around to see that his training pass had attracted attention. A lot of attention. Almost a hundred people stood around him looking at him. Also at the moment they were all applauding with wide-eyed admiration visible on their faces.

"Amazing!" someone yelled in awe. Sokka feeling it almost like he was going to blush any second now.

"Do all Southern Water tribesmen fight like that?" a guard asked, "That was awesome!" Sokka smiled a bit in the man's general direction as an answer before noticing someone in the background. None other than princess Yue was standing a short distance away with a just as awed look on her face. Pure awe and admiration could be seen on her face as she looked at him and it was impossible for Sokka to not freeze for a second. This turned out to be enough for the guard to look back to see what had made Sokka so startled and when he saw Yue he quickly stepped to the side, bowing his head deeply. The effect was instant and the crowd more or less parted like a waterbent lake to form a corridor between Yue and Sokka.

"_For the love of..." _Sokka wondered just what evil spirit was playing with the world around him now. Was it this fun to keep ramming him and Yue together?

"Did you see your highness?" a woman beside Yue said breathlessly. It was easy to see that Sokka more or less had spellbound the people watching with his little display.

"I did," Yue said, "Master Sokka, I've never seen swordplay like that before." Sokka gritted his teeth but put his hands together with the sword held in one and bowed.

"Not many have your highness," he said, wondering just how he was going to get out of this one.

"I will have to take your word on that," Yue told him, almost giggling in amazement, "You must be one of the finest swordsmen in the world. No, the finest."

"You're flattering me princess," Sokka said while struggling with a blush that wanted to appear on his face. "I'm not that good, there's..." Now he was given pause however. A thought came to him concerning that claim, namely that all of a sudden he wasn't sure. Sifu Piandao was as far as Sokka knew the best swordsman in the world. In this world all his memories of the man spoke of someone who was more Sokka's equal than master. Oh of course sifu Piandao had taught Sokka things but it had been more a case of an elder and a younger swordsman clashing on the field of battle and afterward finding a kinship between them. Sokka had a sneaking suspicion that it was meeting him that had made Piandao retire from the fire nation army several years ago now. And Sokka had only grown since then thanks to a life of travelling and fighting. For Piandao, who had retired into a life of contemplation and peace, that wasn't the case. So knowing that then maybe, just maybe... Sokka felt a lump in his throat when realizing that there actually was a chance he was the best swordsman in the world. "No..." he said instinctively, "there's better people than me, I'm sure there is." Starting to panic a bit now, he found himself beginning to flail a bit with his hands. "Either way your highness, is your father available? I've got something I need to talk to him about."

"He should be..." Yue begun.

"Great!" Sokka exclaimed, "think we can go and see him now? Great." Without getting any answer from the girl he started towards the main throne room with a somewhat panicked stride.

* * *

"Other waterbenders?" chief Arnook asked from his elevated platform inside the giant, ice-blue throne room where he and two others were sitting. Hakoda was sitting right next to him, at the seat traditionally reserved for the most honoured in the household. Usually this was the queen but with Arnook's wife dead that place had fallen to Hakoda, Arnook's equal. Princess Yue sat to her father's left side too, watching silently the meeting. "I have never heard of these people," Arnook said.

"Not many have chieftain." In front of the dais Sokka was standing, having just told Arnook and Hakoda about the possible existence of other waterbenders in the swamps of the Earth Kingdom. "Even I only saw glimpses of them and at the time I was suffering from fever. I do not know who they are or how many they number. But I can say for certain that there are waterbenders in the swamplands."

"Interesting," Hakoda said, "Yet we passed by those swamps only a few weeks ago. Why tell us first now?"

"Because at the time I still wasn't quite sure," Sokka said, "waterbenders overall has been something I haven't thought much of in years. Seeing them here jogged my memory."

"If they are there we should contact them," Arnook said, "allies are all too rare in this day and age."

"I agree," Hakoda said, "this war concerns the world too and if Sokka could find them, so will the fire nation."

"With your permission," Sokka bowed, "I would like to be the one to contact them.

"A sensible suggestion," Arnook said, "I understand you have travelled the world for many years Sokka. A seasoned wanderer is the best messenger." Sokka put his hands together and bowed in gratitude at this.

"What are you playing at here Sokka?" Hakoda asked now and Sokka did his best to look innocent.

"What?" he asked, feeling that he managed to play the part quite well.

"Are you that eager to get away?" Hakoda asked with a furrowed brow. "I hoped to have you on my side as a brother and a warrior..." he begun. He wasn't angry quite yet but Sokka could tell he was getting wary. Of course he was... far as he knew Sokka was just a useless wanderer who had forsaken his kin to wander the world.

"I am both still," Sokka said, "I just have other skills as well and I feel I'll be the most useful to you if these skills are put to good use."

"Hmh..." Hakoda said and Sokka found himself swallowing. He wouldn't say no Sokka felt. But still, there was something in the air, something that hinted that Hakoda's trust for him might take a hit now.

"I approve," Katara's voice said from the entrance and Sokka had to force himself to not smile. _"Perfect entrance sis" _he thought to himself. Katara was coming into the chamber now, wearing a heavy fur coat with the hood up. "If there are other waterbenders out there we must find them. I will not leave my waterbending kin to suffer at the hands of the fire nation. I will go with him."

"Are you sure?" Hakoda asked. His voice had turned gentle now. Hakoda always took it gently with Katara Sokka had realized. He doubted he'd say no to her.

"I had a talk with this one yesterday," Katara said and nodded towards Sokka, "I'm going to give him once chance but I want to be there during that chance."

"And if he doesn't come through?" Arnook asked and Sokka flinched.

"Then that will be his last failure in life," Katara said as plainly as could be. No humor, no hesitation or regret. It chilled Sokka to the core and he saw how Hakoda sat up straight, staring at her in shock. Yue seemed utterly horrified.

"I accept!" Sokka said now, looking to face Katara's eyes and marveling at how frozen they were. Was his sister such a good actress? If so she had not only surpassed but transcended anything he ever had seen from her before. "And I will prove to you, once and for all, that I can be trusted."

"That remains to be seen," Katara told him. "Chief Arnook! Hakoda. He and I depart tomorrow for the swamps. " She put her hands together and bowed her head, making very clear that it wasn't the question or a request. Sokka turned towards Arnook and Hakoda and copied the gesture. He made sure to look angry, defiant. Inside however he felt a sense of deep pride over his sister. That was perfect!

Yet, when he raised his head again he couldn't help but notice Yue. Her face showed her worry and uncertainty. It was clear to see that she was scared and Sokka realized that it had to be for his sake. The realization stabbed him in the gut, a knife twisting around inside his stomach. Those eyes... he had to turn around and leave the room abruptly now. Storming out into the hallway outside in what seemed like anger but in truth was shock and horror, Sokka put a hand to his mouth to force down the feeling bubbling up inside him as he leaned towards the wall.

No! He was misreading her! That gaze was not the same as the one he had gotten from her when he volunteered for that suicide mission during the siege of the north pole! Sokka had to hyperventilate now, trying to clear his head of the images and the ideas that came boiling up.

Yue had been a rollercoaster ride of emotions and hormones for him as a teenager from day one and seeing such a familiar look on her face made him relive it all. Snarling, he punched a nearby wall and stalked towards his room. Damn it! He had to get out. Remembering once more her eyes, he shook his head to clear it of them.

When storming into the room he had been given he immediately begun to pack up again. Having only been here a day, he hadn't spread his stuff out too much and could finish it up quickly. Within fifteen minutes everything he had was packed and ready to go He was half a mind to find some hole to sleep in tonight instead of in this room. It felt like he needed to get out of here and fast, before he ended up slipping.

Yeah... that was good idea. Throwing his bag over his shoulder, Sokka walked up to the window and leaped out. He'd sleep in the stables tonight, as far away from Yue as possible. Damn it all, why had he even talked to her?! Why?!

The stables were not far off and Sokka, even now, was used to living like that so he walked towards them with the intent to make a small nest for himself in the hay. It was warm in there, courtesy of the Buffalo-yaks, and he felt like he could sleep well in there. The smell wouldn't bother him either. Even at thirty years of age life seemed to contrive reasons for him to end up sleeping both in palaces and stables.

And yet it seemed he was doomed to be haunted. As he walked towards the stables he rounded a corner and bumped into, you guessed it, princess Yue. The girl seemed to have been taking a walk and thanks to his quick walking he almost collided with her. Thankfully it didn't end up that bad but nevertheless he found himself wanting to disappear.

"Mister Sokka..." Yue said hesitantly. She looked almost heartbreakingly adorable in her uncertainty and Sokka slapped himself mentally for thinking so.

"We meet again," he said and with a herculean effort he even made it sound pleasant, "out for a stroll your highness?"

"Y-yes," Yue said, "are you leaving already?" she asked with a look to his bags.

"Just relocating for the evening," he said, racking his mind as he tried to think up some kind of excuse. "I'm leaving tomorrow as said, might as well try to not get too used to too fancy quarters."

"So where will you sleep?" Yue asked and Sokka twitched. This was not going as he thought.

"The stables," he said and Yue's eyes widened.

"What?" she asked horrified. The thought seemed to appall her.

"It's not that bad," Sokka said, "sure it smells a bit but that's something you get used to. The animals are warm and the hay is soft. Sure I wouldn't take a princess there but peons like me don't mind it."

"If you say so mister Sokka," Yue said. The look on her face said what she thought about it. Not disgust though... something else. She probably believed it was due to Katara he wanted to stay out of the way. Meh... "Still, please do not feel that you must go there. I could offer you a bed in my quarters." Okay wait what? Sokka froze in place now and merely stared at her. Had she just offered him... what? That couldn't have just happened. That just could not have happened! What was going on here? Was this a side of Yue he hadn't seen? Sokka could just stand there, mouth agape.

"I...I..." he stuttered, unable to say anything. Yue's eyes widened after a couple of seconds now and she raised her hands to her mouth in horror.

"I... oh spirits I am so sorry. I was not attempting to... that..." her face turned bright red now, a blush as bright as they got. "I-I meant that my quarters consist of half the west wing. I have several guest rooms at my disposal, I did not..." she begun, babbling furiously.

Sokka couldn't help it. He burst out into laughing. Relief and amusement both flooded him and he clutched his stomach as the paroxysms of laughter hit him. Yue seemed to want to tunnel down into the ice and disappear and Sokka forced himself to stop laughing and made a calming gesture towards her.

"I... thank you for your offer princess," he said, "but there's no need for you to do this. I'm a lout and all so forgive me but the stables will be plenty for me."

"I understand," Yue said, "I just hope that you don't feel that your sister's malice drives you out of your room. You are a guest with us."

"Well with Katara..." Sokka said with a small smile. Cover story time. This world's version of Katara had indeed despised Sokka but perhaps that move had been a little too much. Sokka wondered just what Hakoda would be thinking right now. His sister had all but said that if his brother didn't come through with this she'd murder him. Still, Katara would have made the decision based on what she had experienced in her dreams... just what lay in Katara's past that had made her this vehement? Or had his sister just dropped the ball on this one? Either way, Sokka felt it was best to get out of here as soon as possible. He was already feeling butterflies in his stomach. "As I said Katara doesn't have too much reason to be fond of me. We had a talk yesterday though, as she said, and even if she said things like that I don't think she means it. It's more a case of "Rawr, I am very serious about this, rawr" than that she actually would... yeah." He didn't like this at all. It might be technically speaking not really a lie but he hated having to serve this to Yue. "But yeah, I'll see you when I get back." he winked at her now before he caught himself and with a mental curse he walked away towards the stables.

What the hell was that?! Had he seriously... he was an idiot! The first thing he did when getting to the stables was shoving his head down into the semi-frozen trough of water outside them. Why was he winking at someone he hoped to stay away from!? Pulling his head out, he gasped as the biting cold made his head go numb and caused it to pound. Still, it cleared it and he shook his head to get as much of the water out as he could before he e ran his hand through his hair and sighed. Damn it...

A Buffalo-yak gave up a displeased sound now and Sokka looked at the creature where it stood only a metre or so from him. It watched the water in the through which Sokka had dipped his head in with contempt and nudged him with its nose. Sokka absently patted it on the neck.

"Sorry about that pal," he said absently. The buffalo-yak snorted sourly and Sokka sighed before reaching into his bag and digging out a couple of polar carrots which he offered the beast as a peace offering. It seemed to be accepted and Sokka smiled weakly to himself. If only everything were this easy... Meh... he walked into the stables to get himself set up, thinking that tomorrow couldn't come fast enough.

* * *

Having dug himself a small nest on the hayloft, Sokka leaned back with a sigh as twilight fell outside. It'd be dark soon and tomorrow he and Katara could be off. Damn it, only two days here and it felt like he was speeding towards the exact same pitfalls that he had to avoid. As much as he had enjoyed meeting Yue again Katara was right, it was for the best that they got out of here.

Spirits... obviously Yue wouldn't have had offered him to share her bed. How stupid could he get? Sokka still was embarrassed by that whole thing. He therefore had more than one reason to hide up here right now. It was so incredibly embarrassing. How must he not have come across? Sokka took a bite out of the blubbered seal jerky he had with him and sighed. Severe pervert warning there. And then he had laughed her straight into her face after he had misunderstood her? Gods...

"Sokka!" the voice came from below and made Sokka flinch. Looking around, he seriously considered hiding himself in the hay but in the end, there was not enough time for that before Hakoda's face became visible by the edge of the loft. His brother here climbed up with a concerned look on his face. "I've been looking for you all over," he said.

"Guess you found me," Sokka said absently. "What's up?" he asked, raising a hand as he looked towards his brother.

"Are you all right?" Hakoda asked worriedly.

"I suppose," Sokka said and Hakoda sat down next to him. "Jerky?" he asked now, offering Hakoda some. His brother wasn't late to accept and snatched himself a large strip of it.

"Thanks," he said and for a while they ate of the meat in silence.

"You know brother," Sokka said, "Katara had the right to say that. The life I led before I came here... I've got regrets. This is my chance to live this differently. That's why I have to do this." He guessed that this was a good way of putting it. Hakoda might believe he meant the itinerant life but Sokka in truth meant Yue's death. That was the most brotherly he could do at the moment.

"You don't have to plead with me Sokka," Hakoda said, "I want you to have an opportunity to show Katara what you've shown me."

"So why the reluctance?" Sokka asked him. "you all but said that this was a try of me to get away from here."

"I did not intend it like that," Hakoda said, "I wanted you to justify yourself, give me something to believe in. Not make it sound as though I expected you to run away. I needed to hear why you were to do this."

"Okay," Sokka hated this world's incarnation of him for having squandered his family's trust like this. "Katara and you both have reason to think what you think. All I can say is that I will surpass it. Whether you'll allow me to or not." He looked at Hakoda and smiled slightly. Hakoda sighed sadly.

"Good luck Sokka," the man said, "when you come back the next time I hope you can stay for a bit more than a few weeks." This however Hakoda could say with a smile and Sokka grinned.

"Believe you me," he joked, deciding to take a little risk, "if I stay here for too long you'll find me in the bed of the princess or shaving the yaks or something." Hakoda let out a bark of laughter.

"Can't say I'd blame you," he said, "she is a pretty little thing isn't she?"

"Didn't peg you for someone who liked them that young," Sokka said now.

"You're the one who started it," Hakoda pointed out and Sokka shook his head.

"No I only said that's where you'd find me, not that I had those tastes."

"Oh take a hike!" Hakoda said and slapped Sokka over the head as Sokka dodged away with a laugh.

* * *

The ship they would travel with was a small yet still tough one. Flat-bottomed and with large, triangular sails, Sokka remembered it as the kind used in the ice-dodging challenges. These little boats (For it was a boat since it could be carried on one of the normal longships and only needed one crewman. It was best to have two or three crewmen but it could be sailed with one. Therefore, boat) were quick as could be and still able to traverse any sea. It lay in the water next to the pier loaded with foodstuffs and equipment and Sokka raised an eyebrow. The northerners took this seriously it seemed. They'd have enough supplies to sail around the world by the looks of it.

"Looks like we've got all we need," he said partially to himself as he got down to the boat and begun to rummage through the supplies. "Hey look," he said happily when finding something, "seal jerky!" They had gotten quite a lot of it as well so Sokka chomped down on some of it as he looked up at Hakoda who had accompanied him. His brother folded his arms and looked down at the man with a small smile.

"Enjoy it while you can," Hakoda said.

"You bet I will," Sokka grinned, "And hey, sea prunes even! This will be the best journey ever." Hakoda rolled his eyes and shook his head. The next second he tensed however, looking to the side. Sokka followed his gaze and saw Katara coming towards them. The woman was walking at a steady, almost deliberate, pace and was at the moment donning her gloves. Her face was as cold as always and master Pakku was walking by her side.

"Enjoy it while you can," Katara said to him with a voice as cold at the glacier. Even though Sokka knew she was playing up an act it nevertheless chilled him to the core to hear it and a suspicion that had dwelt in him started to creep up again. Katara hadn't ever been that good of an actor but she carried herself utterly perfectly as the ice bitch version of herself. Too perfect even. Sokka didn't know if there was any hint at all of the Katara he knew. Somehow that unnerved him but he couldn't place it.

"Ain't you the sweetest sister ever," he grinned at her as he bit off the seal jerky hanging from his teeth. "Can I take some prune delights too?" Katara had come up to the boat now and her eyes blazed with sudden rage now as she looked down at him. For one split-second Sokka found himself almost paralyzed. Not by the rage on display as much as him fighting down the urge to duck to the side. Katara had, for one second, literally been contemplating killing him!

Sokka found himself sweating now. This wasn't merely acting and while he simply stepped to the side to let her leap into the boat, he nevertheless made a mental note that he bloody well needed to discuss that with her. His sister came aboard gracefully but coldly and Sokka looked up to Hakoda and Pakku both who were standing up on the pier. What more, he spotted Arnook and Yue both approaching from further away.

"Good luck," the chieftain of the north said as he came up to them. "Master Katara, warrior Sokka. Within you we place our hopes for this new ally of ours. Our well-wishes are with you." Hakoda and Pakku both bowed their heads in agreement and while Sokka nodded in response he couldn't help himself that the thing which caught his attention the most was Yue's face. Her sad face that looked at him with worry in them. Why? What was this? Back then it had taken days for Yue to do more than merely look at him, why did she seem so concerned for him now?!

"We will return successful," Katara said. Her words snapped Sokka out of his Yue-induced trance and he smirked, giving the gathered men on the pier a thumbs up.

"And with souvenirs," he added before Katara raised her hands and begun to waterbend. The boat set out from the harbour at high speed within seconds, Sokka having been thrown backwards and hitting the deck with his back. "Ow!" he exclaimed and for a few seconds his head spun. Slowly rubbing it, he groaned and decided to remain lying there for a while while the boat twisted this way and that. As Katara steered it'd be best to wait until they were out over open waters before getting up. Spirits was she taking those turns sharply or what?!

It took them only minutes to exit the city and Sokka could finally sit up when he felt that they were out on open water. Looking at Katara, who had stopped the bending and raised the sail to let the wind carry them, he smiled dryly. Was she eager or what? Once more though, could he blame her? Not really.

"Well this worked perfectly," he said evenly and Katara looked back at him. The chill was still there in her eyes and he tensed for a second. Why did she still look like that? However then it ran off her and her eyes became warmer again. She smiled at him and sat down in the boat as well, folding her legs.

"It's good to be out of there," she said happily. "Even with the other me spending years terrorizing them they're still stuck in this "you're a woman" mindset. Pakku seems to have been broken out of it when it turned out I was gran-gran's... well, daughter," she said after a second's hesitation. Sokka laughed when he heard this.

"Spirits yes," he grinned, "it's still hard for me to accept the idea that gran-gran is our mom here."

"I can understand why," Katara said, "either way that made Pakku get off his high horse, at least somewhat. Well, that and the fact that I beat him within an inch of his life." She smiled at him now yet Sokka could see that it was a sad smile. It made sense to him though. Knowing how angry Katara had been at Pakku for his chauvinistic attitudes the first time they had met Sokka could get a good idea of what Katara plus murderous rage would do.

"Wanna talk about it?" he asked now, "about how the old you was like?" he clarified after a second and Katara looked out across the water, leaning one arm on the railing as she did so.

"She was angry," his sister said as Sokka got up and made sure to grab the rudder. "Seemingly all the time. She saw so many of her friends taken by the southern raiders... despite being so powerful she couldn't do anything... and then her father died. Everything changed there for her Sokka. She had been resentful, after that she seemed to become insane with grief and anger. Still, I think in some ways that it was the other you's departure that hurt her the most. Not only did her father die but Sokka, who had been daddy's little boy, vanished from the tribe and started traveling the world seemingly without any care for his people. " Sokka sighed at this. Once more he wanted to punch his other version of himself in the face.

"He didn't," he admitted now. While he felt like he shouldn't tell on the other Sokka, this was something he kind of had to tell Katara of. "That rage you describe descended on him as well. He left not to faff about, but to hunt the Southern Raiders."

"What?" Katara said. She looked at him with surprise in her eyes. Sokka nodded.

"He felt guilty over his father's death. It felt as though he couldn't live up to the trust placed on him by his father and the others. He was too weak, too unreliable. So he played it off as simply wanting to travel instead of fighting, hiding why he really left."

"Really?" Katara asked and Sokka nodded again. There, it was out. That was why this world's Sokka had abandoned his family. "That... that is so you that it's scary. I... I want to yell at you for being an idiot right now." Katara sighed.

"Please don't," Sokka laughed, "I've got enough to be hit over even when just counting what one version of me has done." Katara smiled at him. It was still sad but at the same time there was a bit of cheer in it. "But yeah, anything more?" he asked as he looked forwards to keep an eye out for icebergs.

"She's a blood-bender," Katara said and Sokka startled at this, his head snapping back to his sister with wide eyes. His sister nodded sadly. "During the exodus north she and the others got cornered by the fire nation. She drew their attention away so the others could escape. When they caught her she ended up in the same prison as Hama. They escaped together."

"Woah..." Sokka said, "Do you remember where that prison was?"

"No," Katara sighed, "everything that happened there is one big painful mess. I don't know how long she was there, but it was hell for her. When she got out she and the others razed the prison... killed every last one of the guards..." Sokka winced again. This Katara seemed an almost Zuko-like headcase. "Tell me of Sokka." Katara said now and Sokka looked up at the sky.

"He kept everything and everyone at arm's length," Sokka said, "he felt it safer to keep them away and be someone you didn't trust. He didn't want the people he loved to suffer for his failings. When he left to hunt the Southern Raiders things got messy though. He loved traveling and seeing new places. He wanted to lose himself in it but the memory of what happened to his father refused to leave him. I dunno, feels like he thought that when the hunt was over he could go back to drifting around..."

"What happened?" Katara asked.

"I don't know." Sokka shrugged, "I've yet to experience those memories." Katara sighed almost explosively and for a while now things became a bit more silent.

"I wonder if there's any way of triggering it..." she pondered aloud after a while. Sokka shrugging.

"I don't know about that either," he admitted. The human mind wasn't his forte sadly.

"What do you know then?" Katara asked. There was no spite in her words though, only an honest question. Sokka rolled backwards and came to lie down as he watched the sky.

"That I really would like some prune delights," he eventually said. Two seconds later he dodged a squirt of water aimed at his face by his sister with a laugh.

* * *

"I still hate this place," Sokka said as he looked around himself. The Foggy Swamp wasn't a place that ever had agreed with him. The first time he had come here he had been haunted by visions in the of Yue that blamed him for being unable to protect her. Even after meeting the wise old waterbender Huu and listening to the man's view of this place he didn't like it. Only seconds ago one of those birds had given up a shriek that even after all this time sent shivers down his spine.

"I understand what you mean," Katara said from her position at the back of the canoe where she was controlling it. The month that had passed had thankfully seen that facade of cold rage fall away completely and all Sokka saw now was the old Katara. She still was desperate to find some sort of solution to their predicament and get home but at least she wasn't looking like she wanted to kill him any more. "let's just find Huu and get to Gaoling as fast as we can."

"Think we'll have to fight him this time too?" Sokka asked, remembering that one time with even less enthusiasm than everything else around him.

"If he does I'll slice his vines into shredded cabbage before he knows what happened," Katara said grimly, Sokka raising an eyebrow.

"Shredded cabbage?" he asked.

"Yeah," Katara said, "it's an Earth Nation dish. Pickled cabbage, you know?"

"Oh yeah," Sokka snapped his fingers now. "I ate that at this place in Ba Sing Sei once. Marinated pork and pickled cabbage. Really intense taste..." Sokka blinked now before reaching for the pile of supplies that lay in the middle of the boat.

"Sokka..." Katara told him and Sokka shrugged.

"What?" he asked as he plopped a small piece of dried fruit into his mouth, "I'm hungry," he said between chewing, "Care for a prune?" he held up one towards Katara who rolled her eyes but nevertheless accepted it.

"Eat real food if you are hungry," she told him, "You ruin the appetite with sweets."

"Yes m," Sokka bit himself in the tongue there, having been close to say "mom". Katara didn't need the reminders of her children at the moment. "Think we'll have a better chance finding him if we start cutting up plants or something?" He hurriedly moved onto another topic. "If everything is one and all I mean..."

"It didn't help us last time we were here and your machete went like a windmill." Sokka shrugged in response to Katara's remark.

"True. So what, we'll just sail around here and hope for the best?" Katara shook her head.

"I'm going to try something," she said before steering the boat to the side and in under a row of large roots which almost formed a roof above them. Sitting down in the canoe, his sister closed her eyes and lowered her hands into the water. Sokka swallowed now, sitting still and silent. His sister's mastery of her waterbending powers was awe-inspiring, she no doubt was one of the absolute best in the world on what she did. The water begun to glow now, a soft, white glow that illuminated the small space they were in and a low-pitched humming could be heard. Then all of a sudden the light exploded, shooting out in all directions across the water and Sokka yelped before he fell backwards and his back hit the bottom of the boat.

"What was that?!" he asked as he looked up and watched Katara wipe her hands dry. His heart was doing a good impression of a fire nation snare drum at the moment.

"A call," she said, "Any waterbender nearby will feel that. Someone as in tune with the world around him like Huu will feel it from many miles away."

"Good," Sokka said, "Please warn me next time, I almost pissed myself."

"That would have been a sight," Katara told him now with a small smile, "Councilman Sokka wetting himself from fright."

"Keep that up and I'm keeping these prunes to myself you know," Sokka told her, snatching the bag of dried prunes from the pile of food. He knew Katara loved these as much as him. As if to drive home his point he stuffed several prunes into his mouth.

"Are you five years old?" Katara asked him with a tired look on her face.

"Mmmfff-hmm-mmmh," Sokka answered with his mouth full. Katara now smiled wider before she hid her face behind a hand and did her best to not laugh at him. Sokka smiled to himself at the sight. He had made it a goal to make Katara smile whenever possible. The two children, Kaya and Bumi, which she had bore Aang, were Katara's greatest treasures. She truly was a fantastic mother in so many ways and Sokka hated the fact that she was torn away from them like this. Every smile he could give his sister was priceless to him.

"Chew and swallow," Katara sighed with a smile, "we should move out again."

"Mhm-mmm," Sokka said, realizing he probably had eaten a few too many prunes. It got a bit too hard to swallow but he wasn't a quitter so after about thirty seconds of intensive chewing he had pushed down the last of the prunes. Fishing up a small water bottle from the pile he took a hearty swig from it

"Don't waste the water," Katara warned him.

"Actually," Sokka said, "I've got an idea about how you could filter the swamp water."

"You do?" Katara asked.

"Yeah the issue is the filth and the parasites, right?" Sokka begun, "So what you do is that you boil it and collect the steam. You put up an umbrella of leaves over the boiling water and when the steam rises it'll condense on the leaves and drip into cups you place around it."

"That's... quite a clever idea," Katara said, "when you said "boil" I was about to remark that you don't get rid of the filth that way. But that takes care of it."

"Well I am a genius," Sokka said with a smug shrug. Katara let it pass this time though.

"We should keep moving though, the sooner we find those people the better."

"Well ain't that peachy miss, yo' jess found somethin'." A voice came from the side and both Sokka and Katara looked to the side to see a familiar face standing a few meters away. Tho, the swampbender who was as close to a leader as one could find amongst the anarchic swamp tribesmen. The stocky, pudgy man with his meaty nose and giant jaw was sitting on a log and watched them with a suspicious look on his face. "Ah ain't seen yer kind 'round dese swamps befo'e." he continued. "Whut's yer hankerin' here?" Sokka could have made a fistpump but kept himself disciplined. He and Katara had already come to an ironclad agreement about what they knew. No one from "this" world must know of what they knew. The can of worms that would open was beyond what he could fathom. Therefore they had to pull off a convincing act of not having met this guy before.

"Nice hat," Sokka began, watching Tho raise an eyebrow. For a second he seemed confused but then he grinned.

"Ain't too bad one ya got yerself there," he said as he tipped the giant leaf he used for headgear. Sokka raised two fingers to touch the nose of the wolf helmet he wore in a small salute.

"Score one for diplomacy," Sokka whispered to Katara before turning back to Tho. " I'm Sokka and this is my lovely sister Katara. We're kinda new to this swamp mister..." he trailed off now, making an inquisitive move with his hand.

"Ah am named Tho," Tho said and Sokka mentally breathed out. That was that out of the way, yay.

"Great to meet you," Sokka grinned, "You live here?"

"Ah do," Tho said, "How come?" Yeah there was this part to consider. The swampbenders had little to no idea at this time about the world outside the swamps.

"Goodie!" Sokka grinned, "so I wasn't hallucinating that time."

"Hallucinatin`?" Tho asked.

"Yeah I passed through here, or close to here, a long time ago. I was suffering from fever then and thought that I saw waterbenders here. I came here with my sister to see if we could find you. She's a waterbender too!"

"Really?" Now Tho looked surprised. "Ah didn' know there were other folks like us out thar."

"There won't be for long." Katara said now, " You may not know it but there's a war going on in the world outside these swamps."

"Well ah dunno 'bout no war," Tho admitted frankly, "we ain't getting' too much visitors here."

"That might change before long," Katara told him. Sokka felt she was going a bit too fast in here. "Amongst my people of the southern water tribes almost all waterbenders are gone now. They were taken by firebenders. The firebenders have been steadily conquering the world for almost a hundred years. We came here looking for allies to help us stop them." Sokka winced. Did she really think that would work?!

"That sounds right bad it does," Tho said now. "Tho I ain't the man you should speak to."

"No?" Sokka asked, having a good feeling about who it would turn out to be.

"He's name's Huu," Tho said, proving Sokka's suspicion. "Ey, Due!" he yelled now and from a small riverbend further away the lanky swampbender Due came out from behind cover, standing in his skiff. "We're takin' these two to see Huu." Sokka raised a hand to greet Due, happy to see the man again. He had died several years after the war ended during a damn tragic incident in Republic City where a mob of earth and fire benders had attacked the waterbenders that they felt flooded the city, "their" city. The swampbenders with their strange clothes had been a prime target for the mob and Due had been one of the three casualties before Toph's police could stop it. Aang had been enraged to say the least, publicly stripping the instigator of the attack of his bending.

Memories of another time, one that might never come here. Sokka chose to push that memory away as Due happily responded to his wave. Spirits bless the man.

"Tho, Due and Huu huh," he said now. Just to make one tiny remark about their names before moving on. Not that he minded but he felt it'd be best with some "marker" about how fresh this was supposed to be to him.

"Nah," Due said, "Huh's back at th' camp. One of th' catgator's been sick an' she's lookin' after it." Sokka couldn't help but snort with laughter now and he noticed how Katara hid her face. Tho climbed down and into the skiff beside Due.

"Ey missy," he told Katara, "You a waterbender too?"

"I am," Katara said as she demonstrated by maneuvering their boat out of its small hiding place. Tho smiled.

"Huu's quite th' bit off, think ya can keep up in a swamp-skiffin' race?" Sokka's eyes widened and he instantly grabbed hold of the sides of the boat. This would get intense if the look on Katara's face was anything to go by.

"I am not that bad if I say so myself," she smirked as she stood up to start propelling the boat. "Which direction?"

"Straight down this here river an' left at th' intersection'. Then straight forwards 'til th' giant tree."

"Great," Katara said and readied herself by going into a stance. Tho and Due did the same and Sokka noticed something now he hadn't thought too much about before. Katara's stance was much more fluid compared to the two swampbenders. Their movements seemed straighter, more rigid almost. Not clumsy though, both of the swampbenders knew what they were doing. Sokka guessed it was simply a style thing. Swamp water wasn't really as fluid and moving as seawater. Either way, only seconds later Tho cried for the race to begin and Sokka found himself holding on for dear life.

* * *

"Spirits Katara you steer like a madwoman." Sokka admitted to himself that his legs were more than a little bit shaky as he got out of the canoe. He knew how to handle a boat sure but that had been way faster than boats should ever go. At least they had gotten there fast. Only twenty minutes had passed between them starting the race and arriving at the giant tree. It was still as big as he remembered it and Sokka was thankful this time at least they wouldn't have to fight a massive swamp monster this time.

Tho and Due's swamp-skiff came up beside them now. The two swampbenders seemed somewhat in awe of Katara and as they stepped out of the skiff Sokka noticed the looks on their faces.

"That there's gotta be some o' th' finest bendin' I've seen missy," Tho told Katara, who Sokka noticed tossed her hair a bit in response.

"You are not bad yourselves," she told them with a smile. Tho touched the brim of his hat again and Due grinned at the praise. "Is this Huu person far off?"

"Shouldn't be," Due said before raising his hands to his mouth. "Ey, Hue?!" he yelled now. Sokka looked around to see if he could spot the swampbender master somewhere. The quicker they got things wrapped up here the quicker they could get to Gaoling. For some reason Sokka had a bad feeling about what might await them. He didn't know what it was but there was something in the air. Some strange sensation that worried him and it wasn't the swamp, that much he knew.

"Hue?!" Tho yelled now as well and Sokka shrugged before sitting down and digging out some seal jerky from his pouch which he begun to gnaw upon.

"Do you always eat?" Katara asked out of the blue. Sokka looked to her and raised an eyebrow.

"Huh?" he responded.

"I've thought about it this last month," she said, "you always seem to be chewing on something. If it's not prunes it's seal jerky." Sokka shrugged.

"It helps me think," he said, "besides..." he motioned for her to come closer and Katara obliged. "As councilman there's not too much opportunities for doing sword forms," he whispered to which his sister nodded.

"I understand. Just..." Katara paused for a second now, "Eat some fresh fruit if you want something to chew on. Dried prunes isn't the best thing to snack on, dried fruits are very sugary." Sokka gave her a dry look now and Katara raised her hands quickly. "Sorry, sorry," she said apologetically. "It's a reflex." Sokka only smiled however. By the spirits Katara was a driven mother.

"I've got an image to maintain," he told her and Katara rolled her eyes. Tho and Due had climbed up on one of the giant roots and were still yelling. Eventually however they managed to get some feedback.

"I hear ya!" someone yelled from further away and within a couple of minutes the old swamp hermit came walking towards them from further away. The pudgy man looked pretty much like Sokka remembered him, albeit with less wrinkles than last time he had seen Huu in the other world, "his" world. Nothing strange about that though, that Huu had been almost ten years older. Standing up and finishing off his jerky Sokka met Huu's eyes with the intent to charm the man as quickly as he could. Shouldn't be too hard really, Huu was an amicable fellow.

What Sokka wasn't prepared for however was the confused look that came over Huu's face as he and Katara stepped up on the root. While not breaking stride as he walked up to the man Sokka nevertheless got a bad feeling again.

"Good to meet you," he began, "I'm Sokka and this is my sister, Katara." Huu didn't say anything however. He merely folded his arms and leaned his head to the side with narrowed eyes.

"I know," he said eventually, "Dunno why, but I know." Huu looked between them, as confused as Sokka felt startled in this moment. He was even frightened, feeling a sense of fear about the possibility of them being revealed. "You're a waterbender," Huu said, pointing at Katara, "You ain't tho'," he said as he moved on to point at Sokka, "You're a warrior."

"You know these folks Huu?" Due asked now.

"No," Huu said, "Tho' at th' same time... I do."

"Do you..." Katara begun now, "Do you remember anything else?" Sokka could have hit her so stressed out he was. Katara rattled him even more with that brazen question while Sokka's instincts screamed to move on. Huu shook his head.

"Can't say I do. There's somethin' off 'bout you two tho if you don't mind me sayin'."

"Uhm, sorry?" Sokka said awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. Huu furrowed his brow even more now. He looked like a tree in the face with how scrunched up he was.

"Nah," he said, "It ain't like yer to blame for that... at least I think ya'll ain't... yeah you ain't. Dunno how I know that either."

Tho and Due were currently standing on the sidelines, looking back and forth at the scene with confused looks on their faces. Sokka didn't blame them but at the same time he really, really, REALLY wished they were somewhere else right now. Yet misfortune was now balanced by fortune

"You two," Huu said now as he looked towards Tho and Due. "How's ol' Slim doin'?"

"Well, not too bad," Tho said, "But he's still sick."

"I saw a school o' Sheeptrouts by the northern foot of the tree," Huu said, pointing north. "If you hurry you might still catch some of 'em."

"That's great!" Due said, "Ol' Slim loves himself some sheeptrout!" Sokka mentally sniggered at the conversation, remembering how sheeptrout in Republic City was a delicacy that you paid in gold for. Feeding it to a catgator was one of those things that would only come up in comedy plays about spoiled weird pets. Nevertheless he was so very grateful to Huu for this. However the man had caught onto it he treated the whole thing very respectfully.

"See ya around you two," Tho said as the swampbenders departed. "If ya'll 's ever in the neighborhood drop by!"

"I will," Sokka said and waved back along with Katara. When the two had disappeared out of sight however he took a breath of relief.

"I ain't gon' claim to know just what's with you two folks," Huu said as he sat down, "but I can tell whatever's off ain't somethin' yer happy 'bout. If you need an ear ol' Huu's here to listen'."

"Thank you," Katara said now. "But that's not why we are here."

"You sure?" Huu asked, "Life can take you in a lotta weird directions. Consider it." Sokka for a moment wanted nothing more than to spill the beans and admit it all. He didn't like playing this role and having spent these last weeks with Katara being himself had been great. Yet he supposed Katara had a point. They needed to get to Gaoling before anything else. Perhaps they could even come back here after having gotten hold of Zuko and Toph. Preferably also Aang.

"Some other time perhaps," Sokka told the swamp sage reluctantly. Huu shrugged at this.

"Suit yerself," he said. "So what's yer reason for comin' here?" Sokka took a breath now and begun to explain the situation. Yet for one instant he had felt an intense, almost desperate longing to reveal everything, come clean. He bit his tongue on that however, going along with the "wait" idea for now. It wasn't like he'd start vanishing or something anyway, he could take some time to do this right. Especially since his brother... father... whatever Hakoda was here, was expecting him to do this well. It kinda sucked that he seemed slated for heroics in this world too.

* * *

Gaoling looked about the same as Sokka remembered it. A quiet and unremarkable albeit thriving town far from anywhere interesting. Their first stay here had been quite short there last time but it had given him several important things. First and foremost the friendship of Toph Beifong of course, but also the bag he had carried not only during their traveling but for years after it as well. He had liked that bag. Sturdy and durable yet easy to carry and not too bulky. This time he had bought it as soon as he spotted it even with Katara giving him an amused look from under her straw hat. They had gotten earth country clothes this time around, feeling it was best to be somewhat subtle about their presence. After all one of the two people they were waiting to meet here was a fire nation prince and if the Mad Dragon of the West wasn't a well known figure in this world Sokka would eat his boomerang. Still, the Beifong mansion lay about where he remembered it as and he and Katara had no reason to not head straight for it.

"Think I should give it a shot?" Sokka asked as they walked up the path towards the mansion. He was currently holding a small flier in his hand which he had been given by a man on the streets, a flier for the earthbending academy in town.

"Why not?" Katara said as she rolled her eyes, "I mean our family has only lived at the poles since time immemorial. There might be some Earth Kingdom blood in you if we go back enough centuries." Sokka grinned at her response. Katara really had learned to be more witty compared to their travels. "I hope Toph's all right here," she remarked now.

"It's Toph!" Sokka said, "She'll have done awesomely here,"

"Awesomely councilman?" Katara asked mildly and Sokka cringed. Yeah that was a bit too childish perhaps.

"It is my firm conviction that chief of police Toph Beifong will have not only dealt with her present situation but thrived under the circumstances she no doubt has found herself in," he said with a polite smile to Katara, who rolled her eyes again. They now had come up to the large, walled-in mansion that was the Beifong estate. Sokka looked over himself quickly to check for dirt and smoothed his clothes. While he wasn't really dressed for high society he was at least whole and clean which went a long way in and of itself. His armor and weapons were hidden by the boat down by a nearby river. All he had now was the sword and a straw hat, the former being carried on the belt which was the more "proper" way of carrying it. "I'll do the talking here," he said as he walked up and pounded on the gate. "Toph's folks were traditionalists I was thinking." He remembered how the Beifong household was almost like the northern water tribe in its sheer strictness. The father spoke and the mother listened.

"Got it," Katara agreed as she played with her hair a little to make it look more proper. For five, ten and twenty seconds everything was silent now but then Sokka heard someone on the other end of the wall. In the end a man in servants' clothes opened the door and peeked out.

"Yes?" he asked with a whiny voice, Sokka bowing as he removed his had politely.

"Good day my good man," he said politely, My name is Haru of Omashu, this is my cousin Joo Dee."

"Also of Omashu," Katara answered after shooting Sokka a withering glare. She evidently didn't like sharing name with the creepy, brainwashed woman that the Dai Li had used to keep tabs on them.

"We are here to meet lady Toph Beifong," Sokka continued, "Is she available?" Now Sokka had expected quite a few reactions but the one he got was not one of those. The servant's face went pale and hints of panic came on his face. Looking around in shock, the servant eventually shook his head.

"I-I don't know that name, there's no one with that name here!" Sokka blinked and watched as the man retreated in through the door. It was first when he begun to close it that Sokka could react, stepping forward to stop the man.

"Wait!" he said quickly as the servant seemed about to scream for help. "I'm not here to cause trouble, I just..."

"Help!" the servant yelled before Sokka had the time to cover his mouth.

"Will you shut up!" Sokka hissed but too late, the guards were already alerted. "Well crud," Sokka said as a full dozen earthbenders came running through the garden towards the door where they took up positions.

"Stand down intruder!" one of them yelled, "and release that man!" Sokka rose to his full height now and let go of the servant who scurried away as quickly as he could.

"Sokka!" Katara hissed behind him yet Sokka held out a hand before looking towards her with a small wink.

"Trust me," he whispered, "I think I can solve this one." He better. His sister had already reached for the waterskins she carried and if the water in there came out Sokka knew this would turn bloody.

"Take him down!" the guard yelled now and Sokka looked back to see every last one of the earthbenders take one heavy step forward and send a powerful surge of bent earth through the ground towards him each. Sokka only smiled though and thought about how much he loved the Space Sword. Taking off his hat and throwing it high into the air, he pulled out the sword and right before the bending attacks hit him he slashed a deep line in the ground in front of him.

Each and every last one of the attacks stopped in their tracks when they hit the line. The chi carrying the earth forwards was neutralized utterly by the strange properties of the alien metal as Sokka's chi could counter it via the sword. Sokka smirked to himself as he remembered how he once had called what he did swordbending, thinking now that it was really more correct than he had anticipated when the Space Sword was involved. The look on the guards' faces as their attacks were completely annihilated was just as satisfying as when Sokka back then had gotten Zuko to unintentionally use the term as well.

"Keep going!" the yelling guard exclaimed now after a few seconds of stunned silence. Sokka launched his boomerang and shot forwards now however with the speed of the wolf that was his moniker, leaping and rolling to the side to avoid several large rocks being lifted into the air and propelled at him, in only a few seconds he could halve the distance between him and the guards. The sword might be a bit overkill for these people though, they were just guarding a house after all. When Sokka reached the first man he therefore had reversed the grip on his sword. That left his index and middle fingers free for what now followed.

When Ty Lee had joined the Kyoshi warriors she had brought with her her chi-blocking techniques which the Kyoshi warriors had eagerly adapted. And since Sokka had been an item with their leader it had been sort of unavoidable that he learned them as well. Bending the outermost two joints of his index and middle fingers, Sokka now delivered a series of swift jabs that struck the man in several key places and cut off his chi. The man fell backwards limply and hit the grass just as Sokka's boomerang came around and struck another man over the head before being caught by Sokka as he leaped to the side to avoid another attack.

He loved being able to take on and defeat benders! Still remembering the feeling of uselessness and weakness that had driven him to seek out sifu Piandao, Sokka just loved the feeling of now being able to take on the kind of people that once had been way beyond him. He hated war, didn't like violence overall and didn't care much for beating down people just doing his job. But still, against these benders he, a non-bender, could not only fight but even win! Launching his boomerang again, Sokka got in between two of them and shamelessly enjoyed the feeling of superiority as he struck them simultaneously, one hand per guard.

The battle ended as it started. Sokka being totally unscathed as he came to a halt a couple of minutes later amidst the neutralized earthbenders. Sheathing his sword, he walked over to pick up his hat and donned it again. Evidently the name Toph provoked hysteria here. That could only mean one thing. She was not someone liked here, feared rather. The other alternative, that she was hidden here by these people, didn't hold much water considering how surprised the servant had been.

"You by the pond," he said now, looking towards the terrified servant staring at them from his hiding place behind the shrubberies close to the pond further in. He had now assumed a deeper, hoarser voice, figuring it was best to go for a new approach. "Tell the master of the house he's having visitors. Topic's Toph Beifong and I'd advise he accepts me. Otherwise..." he sneered at the man from under the brim of his hat, noticing how the scrawny little man seemed close to fainting. "Chop chop little man. I don't appreciate having to wait." The man winced now and halfway fled towards the building further off, Sokka scoffing to add some extra character before he walked over to a tree nearby and leaned against it with a scowl on his face. Katara first now came into the courtyard proper, looking around at the downed guards. When her eyes turned to him however, Sokka was halfway to start running in fear.

"Trust me," he mouthed towards her and while he could see Katara was about to explode she kept herself restrained.

"Big trouble little man," she mouthed towards him, Sokka feeling an intense wave of that special feeling of being a small boy who knew that he was about to get yelled at. He grimaced under the brim of his hat and focused on waiting.

Thankfully the waiting didn't take too long time and eventually the servant came towards and peeked out again.

"Uh-uhm," he began, "Master Beifong will see you now."

"Good," Sokka said and followed after the man leaving the still dazed earthbender guards scattered across the entrance.

"An explanation would be nice," Katara whispered to him as they walked.

"The name Toph made them freak out," Sokka answered quietly, "If she was hiding here they'd have more of a poker face. I think we can use this."

"How," Katara pressed him.

"Wait and see," Sokka told her steadily. Katara held her peace now and eventually they got into the main house, Sokka noticing that the servants seemed terrified almost. Little wonder though. Having the entire guard detail beaten down couldn't be good for one's feelings of safety.

The master of the house, Lao Beifong, was a person Sokka knew primarily as Toph's overprotective father. Still with how things were so weirded up here he'd not be surprised if Toph was Lao's sister or something here. He was at the moment sitting on the small platform where the "throne" of the house was.

"You wanted to meet me, mister... Haru?" the man said when Sokka and Katara came into the room. The man seemed wary yet at the same time calm. Sokka couldn't deny there was a certain amount of nobility to Toph's father. Even with the situation he seemed merely calm.

"Yep," Sokka said, remaining in the more brutish persona, "I'm here to ask some question's about Toph."

"What do you wish of my errant sister?" Lao asked. There was a wary carefulness in his voice but nevertheless an element of steel. The way he intoned the words kind of hinted that Toph was still family to him.

"So there was a connection," Sokka said, "And that depends on her. I'm here on the job, a job I got from a nobleman in Omashu. Your sister currently has something that belongs to him. I'm here to retrieve it." Lao looked at him for a second now before the man sighed. Toph's fussy father all of a sudden seemed sad. A look of grief and shame came over his face.

"She seems committed to bringing shame to this house," he said. "Yet who can blame her?" Sokka wondered just what had happened in this timeline. He had no idea of what exactly Toph's story had been as it was. "I shall tell you what you need to know bounty hunter," the man said eventually, "yet under one condition."

"Let's hear it," Sokka said.

"Retrieve what you must from her," Lao said, "yet give me your word you will not harm her." Sokka raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously?" he asked, "she's a thief and bandit, shouldn't you want to get rid of her before she embarrasses you more?"

"My father already tried," Lao said, "and that was a shame that makes Toph's actions pale in comparison."

"I'm listening," Sokka said now, feeling a slight sense of having struck gold. Lao shook his head.

"That is not relevant to this discussion," he said, "Give me your word and you will have what you need to find her."

"Well you have it," Sokka said, "though I ain't one for leaving potentially useful info to lie. Should I go into town instead? I bet a few drinks might loosen a lot of tongues." Lao flinched now, looking out through the window with a tired, sad expression on his face."

"You know, I guess, of my sister's.. condition."

"She's blind yeah," Sokka said, "the Blind Bandit. What about it?"

"My father did not approve of his daughter being born with such a condition. He... he put her out in the wilds to be taken by animals when she was a mere three years old."

"Ah," Sokka said, "Still, isn't that the kinda thing that isn't an issue unless it comes out? I can't imagine he bragged 'bout it."

"He did not need to," Lao said bitterly, "Ten years later that very same girl kicks in the doors to this mansion at the head of an army of thugs. My father, already at the deathbed, is told that all of Gaoling knows what he did, something that killed him."

"And you want me to _not_ kill her?" Sokka asked, somewhat awed by what he heard. Once more he felt like he drawn such a long straw when it came to pasts in this world that he was poking people in the eye as it was.

"She is my sister," Lao said, "when she was born I was overjoyed that I had been blessed with a sibling and her supposed death devastated me. Already my father tried to do away with her merely for something she was born with. I cannot bear the thought of visiting any more misfortune upon her." Sokka wondered if all this had changed Toph's father for the better. He was being awfully noble in the situation he was in. Even with a sister that was rubbing the Beifong name in the dirt all he cared about was ensuring her safety. Still, this kind of obsession did run along kind of the same lines with his overprotectiveness of Toph when she was his daughter. Still though, getting to Toph was still on the agenda.

"You're a better man than most people," he told him, "You got my word. Where's she?"

"In the mountains to the north there is an arena hidden deep inside the caves there," Lao said, "They hold Earthbending contests there. If you want to meet her you must best their champion there. That is how she recruits her men."

"Got it," Sokka said, "Won't bother you again mister. Thanks for the info." With that, he turned around to leave.

"Wait," the man said to stop him. Sokka looked back to Lao. "What was the name of this nobleman?"

"Bumi," Sokka said, watching how the colour vanished from Toph's brother's face. No one barred their exit from the mansion thankfully but it wasn't servants that worried Sokka. No what worried him was what came like scheduled when they had gotten out of hearing range of the mansion. That was where Katara grabbed hold of him and Sokka steeled himself for the coming yelling at.

"That," Katara began as she held onto him, "Was risky, reckless, haphazard and so incredibly stupid. I do not know how you pulled that off, but you did and that was amazing."

"Yes," Sokka said wryly, "I'll gladly admit I was running on instinct there at the end." He said, grinning at her. Katara chuckled and slowly shook her head as they headed away from the mansion and in the direction Toph would be. Sokka couldn't help but feel content about the situation. For all their issues and all their problems they would find Toph soon. With the Chief of Police at their side they might just pull this off yet.

* * *

AN: And there it ended. Once again, sadly, I am very sorry, but this fic is no longer something I work on. It is abandoned, left behind and buried. But if you want to use it, knock yourself out. It is here to inspire and entertain equally. Thank you, and good luck.


End file.
